//------------------------------//
// 6 - Exploring 
// Story: Spilled Ink 
// by Fiddlove Enfemme 
//------------------------------//

When I woke up in the morning, I was feeling rather refreshed. While today was looking a bit overcast, that didn't mean it wasn't going to be a nice day. On the contrary, lots of good things would happen on cloudy days. I couldn't think of an example because of the bloody curse, since most examples were inevitably tangled up with specific memories. I could tell, since trying to figure one out ended abruptly in a wall of mental fog. 

Cobbler happened on cloudy days, maybe? My grandma probably just made them whenever she felt like it, but since I couldn't exactly remember I could make up whatever I liked to please the narrative and nobody would know the difference. Except me. And that's why I probably wouldn't make it up.

I trotted into the kitchen with a slight spring in my hooves. And look who I might see, but Starlight sitting at the table exactly like she had the other night. A stack of papers on either side, a pot of steaming coffee to her front, and a mug to drink it from. There was also an untouched plate with two slices of toast, long gone cold.

"Good morning!" I greeted her.

"...It's morning?" she asked groggily.

"Uh, yeah. Friday morning, If the calendar can be believed." I answered.

"...Good." she sighed.

I made myself some slices of toast and buttered them liberally, and then decided that this morning I would make tea. I filled a kettle with water and set it to boil on the stove. There was a nice selection of teas in the cupboard, unopened. I decided that the jasmine blend sounded lovely. While I waited for the water to boil, I munched happily on my toast.

"Fancy some tea?" I asked Starlight nicely, putting on a bit of a comical tea-enthusiast accent.

She took a sip from her coffee cup, but finding it empty, she lifted the pot. somehow, in the time between me entering and now, the entire pot had evaporated. Or had been drank. "...You'd better not be from Trottingham..." she muttered.

"Starlight, if I knew, I wouldn't be here. Now, fancy some tea or not?"

She nodded. So, while the kettle was boiling I brought out the sugar bowl, and poured a little thingy of milk in case she liked her tea cloudy. The resident teapot was a stout, brown one that looked like it would hold up to 1.5 L of liquid, but would do just fine having only 1 L of liquid. Taking two teabags, I placed them in the pot while taking care to loop their strings around the pot's handle. Then, I poured the boiling water over them and watched the water take on a slight amber tinge. I nodded to myself in satisfaction, and brought the teapot to the table. 

But that was only half of what you needed to enjoy a pot of tea. You needed cups to drink it out of. i checked the cupboards again, and managed to track down where all the teacups and saucers were. They had all sorts of designs on them, from simple but proud geometric stylings, to detailed and elegant renditions of flower arrangements. I picked out two that spoke to me and set them on the table beside the teapot.

"How do you like your tea, black or cloudy?" I politely asked.

"I don't drink tea that much." Starlight admitted, rubbing her eyes. She presented her used mug, but I pushed it away in favour of pouring into one of the cups I'd brought out. It had an arrangement of various wildflowers I didn't recognize, but they were still quite colourful. I pushed it her way, and she accepted the replacement.

I poured tea into my own cup, then sampled it with a quick sip. Still very hot, but I'd judged the timing right and the tea had just gotten the kind of flavour I liked. It didn't need any sugar or milk, as far as I was concerned.

"Give it a minute to cool down more," I suggested. "I guess you've been up all night, then?"

"...Yeah."

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for work?" I asked.

Starlight shook her head groggily. "Today's a statutory holiday. As dictated by one Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle. Not even charter schools like the School of Friendship, that she founded, can ignore statutory holidays."

"Stat Holiday, huh? Why are you doing paperwork instead of sleeping in?"

"We're in the middle of exam season right now. I have to sign off on a million different little things, and oddly enough it's hard to work a curriculum around the concept of making friends. Trying to design rubrics is an incomprehensible mess. How many friends do you need to pass the course? If somepony doesn't have enough friends to pass, do you fail them because they didn't try hard enough? Or because nopony liked them? Every single student's situation is different, and since we have students from nations other than Equestria, there's cultural differences we need to account for. And then how exactly do you "test" a friendship? Do you manufacture situations that put strain on their friendship and see how well they cope? I've done that, and as poor Windy Terrace knows quite intimately, it never ends well! So do you know what happens instead?" Starlight began to rant.

"I, uh--"

"The teachers each come up with some sort of idea for every individual student, which they then have to pitch to me. So instead of being stuck in endless meetings with me for an entire week trying to figure out what they're gonna do, I asked them to submit through a form! So now I have at least six different forms for each student, and I have to look through each and every one of them to make sure there isn't anything that would, I don't know, put them in unnecessary danger or even kill somepony! We have over three hundred students here! That comes up to almost two thousand individual forms I need to sign off on! Two thousand sheets of paper that I have to pour over and make sure there isn't any sort of problem with any of them! And do you know what happens if there is something wrong? It goes back to the teacher who suggested it, and the teacher has to fill out yet another bloody form for me to look at!" Starlight was seething with barely contained rage at this point. "Do you know how much stress that's putting me under right now?"

I was taken aback. I didn't know what to say, if there was anything I could say.

Starlight grimaced as she saw my reaction. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't take it out on you. I shouldn't take it out on anypony at all, least of all you. I'm supposed to be professional." she earnestly apologized.

"Is being Headmare a lot of stress?" I asked carefully.

"That's a hard answer," Starlight sighed. "It's yes, but also no. Twilight founded this school with the intention of being its Headmare, and assigned the tasks assuming she'd be the Headmare for the foreseeable future. But who could foresee Princesses Celestia and Luna, who'd been ruling Equestria for thousands of years deciding to retire? Twilight didn't, and she was their chosen replacement."

"That's a weird system. Two people ruling for thousands of years, unopposed, then suddenly giving it up to someone random?" I commented.

"Well it wasn't entirely random. Twilight was Celestia's star pupil at her School for Gifted Unicorns. Celestia had been mentoring her with regards to friendship since the day Nightmare Moon returned. In fact, the anniversary of that's coming up." Starlight corrected me.

"Ah," I said. "So it's nepotism."

"Yes. Yes it is." Starlight replied flatly.

"Still a weird way to run a country." I smirked.

"Anyway, my point was that when I took over there were a lot of duties that were catered to Twilight's skill set as opposed to mine. Such as piles and piles of paperwork. I hate paperwork. But, the Big Ol' Book of Rules that Twilight herself wrote outlines the duties of Headmare quite clearly, paperwork and all. I can't go against the Charter of Friendship." Starlight explained.

I shrugged. "Maybe you need a secretary. To help filter through it, you know?"

"Maybe."

"Your tea is cold."

"So it is." she said.

I drank down my cup of tea and checked the pot. It was cold, and now oversteeped. So, I did the only logical thing.

I poured out the old tea and started another pot.





I think Starlight was grateful for my company, even if she wasn't too fond of tea. The two of us chatted for most of the morning, sipping tea as she did her best to scan through pages to approve or reject the exam proposals. Eventually though, Starlight got too tired to keep at it despite admitting to having drunk copious amounts of coffee overnight and into the morning.

Even as she reluctantly limped off to bed, I got the feeling that she was trying to prove herself. To whom, I couldn't tell. This mysterious Twilight Sparkle? Her students? Herself? Too early to tell, but still something to keep an eye on.

I also had managed to convince her to lend me a bit of spending money, so I could buy lunch later. It wasn't very much, at least I didn't think so. The system seemed to be built on fractions, and hadn't been decimalised. I liked decimals, they were easy to look at and all worked together nicely and made sense. I did not like fractions nearly as much, they were all different and didn't work together nicely and made no sense. 

Before I left, I found a decent looking set of saddlebags to borrow in one of Starlight's many closets. I picked a pocket to keep the cash in, as well as remembering to pack a few essentials. With everything in order, I set out to wander the streets of Ponyville aimlessly.

Or maybe wandering wasn't what I was going to do today. I honestly felt like finding a cafe, sitting down, and waiting to see what opportunities would come to me. It wasn't long before I'd found one.

The street I'd found myself on was dedicated to groceries and eateries. None of them seemed appealing, until I encountered a nice little cafe across the way from a bakery. Oddly enough the cafe was called The Nice Little Cafe Across the Way, and it had an area for patio seating. I could smell something good coming from the bakery though, a nice little place going by the "Bread and Butter Bakery.

Unfortunately, the cafe's patio was full. And as I made my way inside, I saw that the indoor area was full as well. If I had to describe the place, it would be homey and nostalgic. Unlike the other cafes I'd seen today, which were upscale and modern, this one spoke to a simpler time. It had sturdy wooden furniture, a brightly varnished set of paneling along the walls and counters, and a clean aesthetic. Maybe it'd had a previous life as a woodworking shop, judging by the little shavings of wood I spotted caught in the cracks in the floor.

"Hey there, bud. What can I get ya?" asked the barista at the counter. He had this swirl of a mane on his head, an off-white colour in a style that resembled a cream puff, and his coat was a speckled white and brown. He had a green striped apron, with a nametag that read Cinnamon Swirl, and his cutie mark was a coffee cup with a spray of whipped cream on top.

"Got anything on special today?" I requested.

"It's on the chalkboard." the barista replied.

It looked like quite the deal. Your choice of medium drink and a muffin for 4 and a half bits. They were the big chunky muffins, too.

"How about a medium lavender latte, and one of those muffins with chocolate chips?" I asked as I placed what I thought was the right amount on the counter.

"Right on, is that for here or to go?"

I looked around. "I kinda would like to sit down, but it's kinda full."

"You can check the bakery, they keep a few tables there for the nice days. That's where the muffins are made, actually. The owners have a partnership." the barista commented, before presenting me with a few small coins in change.

"I guess I'll take it to go either way, then." I shrugged.

"I'll have your muffin in a jiffy, your latte will be on the counter over there" the barista pointed helpfully.

So, after getting my muffin I went over and stood patiently be the indicated counter, until I saw a familiar face trot up.

"Well whaddaya know? It's Inks. This medium lavender latte for you?" said Ginger Hearts.

"Yeah, that's mine. Didn't expect to see you here, Ginger." I commented.

"A mare's gotta work. Even if a certain somepony else doesn't believe in work." she shook her head disapprovingly.

I shrugged. "At least he's got that music going for him."

I thanked Ginger and took my latte with me outside. Interestingly enough, the takeaway cup had a surprisingly good seal when the lid was closed, and I was able to stick it into one of the saddlebag pockets, beside my muffin in its paper bag. I took the barista's advice and trotted over to the bakery across the way. The front of the store had a number of windows, each with a stocked display of various breads and related baked goods. Except for the largest one; through the big window, I could just barely make out a table with a scattering of chairs around it.

So, I walked inside.

If there was an epitome of family-owned businesses, this was it. The wallpaper was a vertical striped green and white, with faded gold trim. Along some of the corners the paper had been scraped away to reveal the drywall beneath. The trip had also been scraped, with glimpses of soft brown wood poking through. The displays and counters were a collection of what I assumed were secondhand purchases from businesses that had long since closed, though everything was used efficiently and effectively. 

There was such a variety of bread and baked goods that I didn't know where to start. None of it was particularly sugary or confectionery based, but there was an honesty behind the presentation. What you saw what you got, and based on the prices written up on their board, it was at reasonable prices.

Behind the counter was a petite mare whose coat was a light goldenrod yellow, and her mane was a dark brown that was very close to becoming black. She perked up a little when I came in, saying, "Welcome to the Bread and Butter Bakery!"

"The barista at the cafe across the way said you might have some seating?" I asked hesitantly.

"It's over there by the big window." the clerk replied, pointing me in the right direction.

Though I'd hoped to be sitting alone, there already was another unicorn occupying one of the chairs. His coat was a sort-of fuchsia colour, though his short mane was a very nondescript grey. I probably would have overlooked him, if I hadn't been looking to sit down there. He was slowly scratching away in a notebook, and didn't even look up as I approached the table.

"Mind if I sit here?" I asked.

The writer looked up at me. His eyes squinted and darted about as he studied me, assessing me against something. "Why?" the writer warily asked back.

"I'd like to sit for awhile and have my tea," I said. "Across the way is full."

He glanced out the window with the same studious look he'd given me. When he saw that my words rang true, he gestured wordlessly to the seat furthest from him. I took this to mean that he was fine with me sitting here. So, I sat down with an empty chair between himself and me, and set out my tea and muffin on the table.

The tea was slightly too warm to drink comfortably, but the way to drink a hot beverage was to just deal with it and sip carefully. If you did it right, you'd only suck the very top layer of slightly cooler liquid. That was something that... someone who meant a lot to me had said once. Right now it didn't matter much, but I felt a distinct sense of loss and longing. It worried me; had something happened to them before I came here? My mind immediately jumped to something horrible. Maybe someone had sent me to get help, and they were waiting for my return. Waiting alone. Losing hope.

After a few moments my clearer head prevailed. If there was someone waiting for me, then I wouldn't even be able to remember where they were, how to get to them, or even who they were. Unless I got my memories back, I wouldn't have any way to help them. Assuming there really was trouble.

The lavender latte was good. Not something I'd have everyday, but on occasions when I wanted to change things up a bit. The muffin was the best muffin I'd had in a long time - well, in the past week at least. Definitely good enough for me to get a second muffin from the mare at the counter. Which I did.

"The cafe across the way sells your muffins, right?" I asked her.

"Yeah, the owners have a business partnership with us. We have a slightly better deal if you buy them here, but if you buy them there you're supporting two local businesses at the same time." she explained.

"I'd like another one then. How about blueberry?"

As she fetched it, I fished out a coin that seemed about the same as one I'd used earlier for the tea and muffin, setting it on the counter. I had no idea how much it was worth, since it wasn't said on the coin itself. It did, however, have an image of three ponies on it moving in a circle; one with a horn, one with wings, and one without either. The obverse had a coat of arms featuring a sun and a moon, as well as a bunch of letters around the rim saying something in a language I didn't understand.  The mare set my muffin down on a plate, then slid the plate across the counter to me. 

I was just about to take a bite from the muffin to see how good it was when the mare frowned and inspected the coin I'd set down. She picked it up, looked it real close, then flipped it over several times.

"Where did you get this?" she asked.

"In a bunch of change a friend of mine gave me. Why?" I answered her, puzzled.

"Your friend must be pretty rich or pretty stupid. This is a Triple Guinea, solid gold, only minted once 43 years ago during an economic boom to promote spending. Nopony could ever remember how much change to give for it, so it fell out of circulation less than a year of minting. It's a hot collector's item nowadays." the mare recited without pause.

"With Starlight? More like pretty forgetful," I frowned to myself. "How much is it worth, exactly?"

"Face value? 36 bits. Not a lot, considering inflation. Going by gold value it would be about 200 these days depending on purity and the stocks, but there was one that went on auction a while ago that was something like... several hundred thousand bits. I'd ballpark it at something like 300,000 odd, depending on who's interested in it."

I blinked. "I guess I should keep that one then. Is this one any good?"

"Not quite, that's a two bit penny. Got another bit in there?"

"Is this a bit?" I asked, holding up a coin that seemed smaller than the tuppence.

"...That's a Griffonian Nickel."

"Is that enough?"

She sighed. "No, that's not even legal tender in Equestria. And no, I'm not a money changer or a banker, no matter how good I am with making change from obscure coin denominations."

"Oh." I said. I looked at the coins I'd taken out, my ears starting to burn in embarrassment. "You're, uh, very good with money aren't you?"

She rubbed her forehead. "And you're the opposite, aren't you?"

I suddenly did not want to be there anymore, even if the muffins were good. I was being too awkward to bear. The mare picked up on this and tried to reassure me. "No, it's okay, don't worry about it. It's just that it's not every day somepony comes in with a pocket full of coins and doesn't even know what they're worth. I'm guessing you're not from around here?"

"Y-yeah, bit of a long story though." I stuttered. 

"I won't pry, but you're not going to get very far without knowing money. If you have time after my shift's over, I could do my best to teach you." she offered. "My name's Pennyfarthing, by the way."

"Uhhh, sure?"

"Great! I'm done at five, want to meet at the town hall? It's got some quiet spaces in the new library." Pennyfarthing smiled.

I nodded before I'd fully thought through it, which made me feel rather flustered. "I guess I should tell you my name too."

"Yeah, that'd be nice." she replied. An awkward pause passed, as for some reason I couldn't remember what my name was to say it. Only when she cleared her throat did my name finally return to me.

"I'm Ink Blot," I said quickly. "Sorry."

"Yeah." she said. A few more moments passed as I looked everywhere except at her.

"...Bye." I finally said, taking my muffin and going out the door.

As I passed by the big window outside, I saw the writer glance out at me. He frowned, then looked over his shoulder at something. If I'd been less flustered, it might have stood out more, but in the moment it happened it was ignored.





At least I didn't have any trouble finding the town hall. It was the tallest building in Ponyville, except for a few that were seemingly build into the clouds. Or maybe they were built out of clouds. Didn't seem like the most stable building material, but if it worked then it worked.

Since seeing that light and movement on the top of the hall the other day, I'd consciously made efforts to avoid being in eyesight of the building. Barring that, I made sure that when I was walking I kept my own eyesight on the building. If there was another movement or flash of light, I'd see it. Not that I expected to see the exact same tell again.

What was there really to tell about the building? It looked like an oversized carnival carousel, except it was an actual multi-storied building with function and use. The style was the same as the rest of town, a sort of cream plaster with wooden beams and posts. It was a good deal more ornate than the rest though, with flourishes and detailing not seen elsewhere; except for maybe one or two of the nicer buildings in the Old Town. The most interesting part though, was that the entire building was encircled by tiers of deck space and 

As I stepped up onto the deck, the old floorboards creaked. Not in the way that weak and rotten wood did, but in the way that wood that had shrunk and weathered with age did. It was the kind of creak you heard when one end of the board was still nailed tight and the other had loosened over time. That creaking was the hallmark of an old building.

Inside was no different than outside. Typical of what I expected from Ponyville by now, with extra care and ornamentation where it mattered. The main door opened up into a massive galleria with tiered balconies that seemed to continue from the ones outside, with large doors and windows, which provided more than ample natural lighting. I reckoned that it would be rented out for public events and private functions.

It was a very open space to be sure. With a quick survey of the room, I spotted two stairways that lead up the balconies, then to the closed-off upper floors. Up there, I suspected, were a series of smaller rooms used for meetings or storage. As well as the Mayor's office. The sets of stairs were diametrically opposed, both at opposite ends of the room. I picked one at random, and trotted over. At the landing there were bulletin boards full of events and advertisements, as well as directional arrows indicating what was upstairs and what was downstairs. Up went to offices, storage, and something called "PPR". Down went to the museum, more storage, and the library.

In the basement, Pennyfarthing was waiting for me.

"Oh, there you are. I was about to wonder if you'd flaked on me." she said.

"Should I have gotten here earlier?" I asked, uncertain.

"No, I only got here a few minutes ago," she smiled. "Let's go in, it's always quiet at this time of day."

It wasn't quite on the scale of Starlight's library, but the selection was impressive. There were neat rows of book cases that went on in a grid pattern. Each bank of cases had about 8 cases in them, repeated as much as was practical from one end of the room to the other. There were also allowances for small seating areas with desks for books, and windows along the far wall to let in as much light as possible. To supplement the weak lighting, enchanted lanterns let of a soft glow from the low vaulted ceiling. Off to my right, the resident librarian lounged with her hooves on her desk, reading one of those Daring Do novels. She briefly looked up at us as we walked in, peering over a set of antiquated spectacles before returning to her reading.

Pennyfarthing lead me over to the "Finances" section and browsed for a sizable textbook that read The Coinage of Equestria: A Beginner's Guide on its spine. The bloody thing was as thick as two bricks, and thrice wider than that. If that was a "Beginner's Guide", then I was a donkey.

"This is as good a place to start as any," Pennyfarthing grunted as she hefted the textbook onto the nearest desk.

A cloud of dust was kicked up from the pages of the textbook when she flipped open the cover. A lot of it got in my face, making me cough up a storm. "Cough cough! When's the last time someone opened this?" I asked.

"That's not dust, it's soot." she replied without looking up.

"Soot?"

"The old library burned down a while ago. It was a nice library, too. Hollowed out the inside of this massive oak tree with magic, then built the library in it while it was still living. The Golden Oak Library, it was called." Pennyfarthing explained.

"It just burnt down one day? Was it struck by lightning or something?" I questioned.

She continued, "You'd think, but out west in the entrance to Tartarus, where a whole bunch of old baddies get locked away for eternity. Cerberus, the gatekeeper, was away for some weird reason and one of them got out. See, this centaur called Tirek could steal away power from ponies, and he wanted to rule the world. He came to town, drained a bunch of ponies, then zapped the library. Lost a lot of good books in that. The librarian was understandably angry, so they started fighting."

"What happened?"

Pennyfarthing looked me dead in the eyes, imparting her words with gravitas. "The librarian won."

I blinked, frowned, then looked in the direction of the lounging librarian. I was suddenly filled with a more than reasonable fear of damaging the books.

"Ah, here we go. Do you want the short version or the long version?" Pennyfarthing said as she found the page she was looking for.

"The difference being..?" I asked.

"Short is just the numbers and stuff. Long has context for developments of different types of coinage. I can give you either at the drop of a hat, but having the book right here means I can verify my facts."

I mulled over this for a moment. "Is there a middle ground? Keep the interesting tidbits and drop the fluff?"

"Sure is." Pennyfarthing nodded, before launching into her spiel.

"Before the Alicorn Sisters there was little standardisation of coin, most transactions being undergone by whatever nearby urban centre had the most reliable coinage. This usually meant being founded on some sort of fungible good or resource, usually precious metals or gemstones. This worked for the most part, but areas that relied on gemstones would typically be at odds with regions that had high dragon populations, as dragons used gemstones as food. Each region either minted coins that held their value in the goods it was produced from, or issued bills that represented a designated value of a given good. All in all, standard economics.

"However, when the Alicorn Sisters unified Equestria into a single nation rather than a loose collection of associated states, they required a standard coin. Some regions used different names for the same coin, or the same name for different coins. The only common thread was that any number of small denominations were varying called "Bits", which originally referred to larger coins that had been cut up to make change. The largest of these so-called "Bits" was chosen as the de-facto currency of Equestria, and a lot of the other sizes were reclassified in relation to the new Equestrian Bit.

"As time went on and prosperity went up, a lot of those smaller currencies fell out of favour. In modern times, only four were still used commonly. Each one was simply called by how much of a Bit it was worth. The 1/2 Bit, the 1/4 Bit, the 1/8 Bit, and the 1/16 Bit. The larger coins were a little more complex, as there had been quite the variety of them. The Twopence Bit was worth two Bits, a Florin was worth 5, the Guinea was worth 12 Bits, and the Sovereign was worth 20, with a whole host of less common ones that straddled the gaps. The most valuable coin still in standard circulation was called the "Guinea-Sovereign", worth a whopping 240 Bits. Not many would just throw a coin like that on the counter of a bakery and hope to buy a single muffin." Pennyfarthing finished pointedly, indicating the different coins on a chart that showed their values and shapes in relation to the Bit.

That last remark stung a little. "How many muffins could that buy?"

"All the muffins we could produce in a day, and the bakery can make a whole lot of muffins." she rolled her eyes dramatically. "There's been a bunch of talk about standardising the Bit further, converting the values of existing coins to a Base 10 scale, ditching all the fractions and odd mathematics you need to do to figure out what's equal to what. Mostly because the new Princess is a sucker for details. If you ask me, it's the same stuff they've been going on about for my entire life."

I had to say, it was what I asked for. Would I remember all of it? No. Was it more entertaining in the moment? Definitely.

"Why do you know so much about coins?" I asked.

"Because it's sorta my thing." she answered, pointing to her cutie mark. It was a loose collection of coinage, each one a different size and value.

"Fair enough." I replied.

Contrary to what some would have you believe, it is entirely possible to spend time together with the opposite gender without suddenly having to do something intimate. That's what we did for a while longer, as I practiced and reviewed the common coins the two of us chatted about little things. She told me about working at the bakery, I told her about my whole curse thing, and she wasn't overly surprised, saying "The only way somepony could be in Equestria and not know what a Twopence Bit is, was if they had some sort of memory problem."

"Well maybe I did know it, and the curse got rid of it?" I challenged.

"So what? If it's gone now, it's no use to you, and you're stuck having to learn from me." Pennyfarthing chuckled.

"You won't be laughing if my memory comes back."

"Yeah, well? If it's not back in the next, I don't know, 15 minutes, I can still laugh as much as I want."

"Got me there," I shrugged. "Hey, are you busy tomorrow?"

She shook her head. "It just so happens that I've got weekends off. Why?"

"You like music?" I asked.

"If you're asking if I'm going to the Senior's Hall tomorrow, I am. Every musician in town performs there on the weekends, from the DJ, to that Apple family fiddler, to the legendary Octavia. Sometimes the big popstars like Colouratura or Songbird Serenade even stop by. The whole thing is broadcast live on the local radio station for anypony who'll listen," Pennyfarthing said excitedly. "Wait, how'd you hear about it then, if you lost your memory?"

"Met a cool cat, real good with the piano. Name of Rags." I said.

"You met Rags? The Ragtime Jones? Best musician of our generation?" Pennyfarthing asked.

"Yeah, I just followed the music and it lead me right to him. Nice guy, can really play a mean rag."

"Not just rags, he can play just about anything from memory, even if he's never heard it before. All he needs is a tune and he can take it away. A real visionary he is." she gushed.

A moment of silence passed, then I said "Thanks for the money lesson and all, Pennyfarthing."

"Oh, just call me Penny. See you at the Senior's Hall tomorrow?"

"Definitely." I nodded with a smile. Something told me she'd be a good friend. She returned the book to its place on the shelves, then left the library.





I'd have been a fool not to take advantage of this opportunity. I had a reason to be in the town hall, and if my suspicions were correct, I'd have open access to the upper levels. I carefully made my way upstairs, back through the galleria. The sun was beginning to set, casting long rays and shadows through the building.

There were two floors above the galleria. The first was of no interest to me, full of offices and similar boring things that involved paperwork. The second floor was the last floor, and it was a lot more cramped than the one below. There were only three rooms, plus a closet that barely deserved a mention. One was marked simply "Storage", but the other had a line of cables running under the door.

I approached carefully, trying to listen for anything suspicious. I heard the low whine of what I suspected were electronics, as well as hooves pacing back and forth. I tried the door and found it unlocked. Carefully, I opened it and peered inside.

There were two ponies, both stallions. One had a set of headphones on, using a series of dials to equalize something. The other was inside a room with a large glass window, a microphone, and a lot of soundproofing. He was talking into the microphone. The room was filled with banks of devices, all hooked up to eachother with dials and displays and cables. 

It looked like a radio station, judging by the banks of optical storage. Cassette tapes, disks, records, in racks and stacks, with all sorts of devices for playing them hooked up to a main display. Looked like a homebrew setup, a couple of hobbyists doing their thing. Frankly, I was inclined to ignore them, so I did.

The closet I'd initially dismissed proved more interesting than I'd thought it would be. Firstly, it was a walk-in. Secondly, it had a panel in the wall that had been left ajar. Intrigued, I pulled it aside and revealed a crawlspace. I couldn't see where it lead, because it turned left by 90 degrees about three metres down its length. I glanced out of the closet. Should I risk it?

My curiosity got the better of me. I went in. I needed to know, I needed to find something, anything to explain what I saw the other day. It hadn't been at the forefront of my mind, but it had been nagging every so often.

The crawlspace was cramped but navigable, opening up to a small room that had probably been accidentally sealed off during a round of renovations. It was mostly bare, except for a desk crammed into the corner and a ladder leading to a hatch. That hatch went up to the roof. I know because I checked it. The hatch explained how someone had gotten onto the roof. But the room was so bare that I didn't have any clues as to what had actually been up there.

Maybe I was overreacting. That thing I'd seen could have been a weather vane, or a piece of debris from... something. One of Gyro's flying machines, perhaps.

I was almost going to believe myself, so I turned to leave. Which is when I saw something that made my blood run cold.

Across the opening I'd entered the room from, there was a hair-thin line anchored at either end of the opening. Or at least, had been anchored. In my entry, I'd broken the line, which was now in two pieces on the floor. It was a tripwire. Retracting blade, falling weights, explosives, the possibilities crowded inside my head. My instincts screamed at me to run very far and very fast, but if there had been malicious intent in that tripwire, I'd be dead by now.

That tripwire was the confirmation I needed. I rifled through the desk, and found something that vaguely resembled a spyglass. It was very basic, had a telescoping function, and was painted a drab brown - the same brown as the town hall's roofing material. There were also threads along the smallest end of it, to screw into something. I was about to dismiss it when I noticed a key detail. The lens was reflective, casting a small amount of light wherever it was pointed.

Was this spyglass what had caught my attention? Probably. It had been too far away to be sure, but it was the only answer I had right now. To be safe, I put it in my bag to examine later.

I left the room and crawlspace, doing my best to return it to how it had been when I'd come, and returned to the castle to sleep.