//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 day in the life 
// Story: The Poniad, Part I 
// by Illiad_Easle 
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I'm falling. Ok, why?
Hundreds of glass-like shards fall around me, did I fall out a window? I look around. I recognize the nearby architecture as Canterlot, but the nearby buildings aren't familiar to me. My face turns to the sky and I see a unicorn falling  along side me and a pinkish pegasus diving toward us. I know she can't save both of us, and I feel her pain as she realizes this too. I feel the terror of the other unicorn, cold and dark. I turn back towards the ground, the shards, like diamonds, sparkle in the light. I feel the emotions of the unicorn begin to move upward and her momentary relief mixed with the sorrow of the pegasus. As the ground approaches I feel peace inside, my eyes close and I relax.

'THUD!'

"Ow!"  This street is much colder than it looked. I'm ok, nothing feels broken. I open my eyes, 'The road is made of wood?' As I look around I begin to recognize my surroundings. I am back in my bedroom in Troy,  it was all a dream!
I look toward the mirror at the other end of the room, and two blue eyes look back at me. By the light of the full moon I see that my khaki coat is matted with sweat and my brown mane is in its usual poofy mess. I lift myself off of the floor and discover that i'm not the only thing missing from my bed. My blanket is wrapped around me but my pillow has decided to play hide & seek. My searching is quickly interrupted by most unusual feeling, it stands out distinctly from the usual feels of the ponies on my block. Judging by it's location I would hope it's a pegasus, the unusual thing is that it feels like two pegasi, just in the same exact spot, like a split personality of sorts. I can tell it isn't Trojan, it's too... Equestrian. Having assessed the anomaly I resume the hunt for my pillow.
I feel Odys, the local mail pony, flying his route through my block. Which reminds me, I have a package for him to deliver. I trot over to my closet and look over at the corner of my room where I keep my laundry pile, unfortunately there is only one toga in it, which means it's monnight, and therefore meetings, hours and hours of ponies arguing into early morning. I look into my closet and put on a plain white toga. Since the meetings don't start until 4am I still have most of the night to paint. I walk over to the stairs and find my pillow on the way down. I float it over to my bed as I continue down the stairs.  I float the paintings destined for market out of the back room and into a large box. I stamp my seal on the box and put it by the door, which to my surprise is immediately knocked on by the mysterious pegasus. At this range I can tell that she is searching for something. I open the door to find a light gray pegasus with an Equestrian mail cap and saddle bags. Her eyes don't really line up, I can't tell if she's looking at me or the letter she's holding in her hoof, both maybe? She feels, and looks, tired. She obviously isn't used to the nocturnal nature of Troy.
"Hi," she says, enthusiastically despite her sleeplessness, "I'm looking for Illiad Easle, do you know where he is?"
"That's me actually,"
"Really?", she tilts her head, at this angle her eyes seem to line up, "Well in that case, I've brought you a letter!"
She hands me the letter in her hoof. It has the seal of the Canterlot Archives on it.
"Thanks, uh..."
"Ditzy Doo,"
"What?"
"That's my name, Ditzy Doo."
"Ok then, thanks Ditzy."
"You're welcome!" She turns and flies away just as Odys lands on my porch.
"Hey Illiad, who was that?"
"A pegasus from Canterlot, I think, she felt ... odd, somehow."
"Really? Anyway, I've got some mail for you."
"The usual kind?"
"Yeah," as he digs through his bag, "Fan Mail, requests, ooh look! There's a bill for you too!"
"yay, I always wanted one of those."
"You're just lucky I guess, here's your mail." He reaches into his bag and gives me a stack of letters bound by a piece of string. "Well, I best be off,” he says,a he turns to leave, ”See you tomorrow Illiad!"
"Bye!" I wave as he flies into the night. I take my letters inside, all but the one that Ditzy gave me and the bill are either fan mail or requests. less than half of them have racist comments, which is better than last week. I sort the letters, then look at the one from the archives.
Illiad Easle,
Your request for a foreign access visa to the Canterlot archives has been granted. Enclosed is an ID card that will allow you access to the archives between the hours of 9am and 7pm for the duration of one month from the day you arrive at the archives. We hope you enjoy your research.
-The Archives Staff

P.S. I don't know why you even bothered to send a research request, the keys you got when you worked here still work. In case you lost them I put a new set in this letter, they will allow you to study whenever and wherever you want. You should also note that the ID enclosed has curator level clearance, which will allow you to access every section of the archives. Try to visit me if you can, I'd love to hear about your new life in Troy.
-Dewey, Head Custodian

I have no idea why I even requested a foreign research visa, I even have my old keys on my keychain. I pin the letter to my bulletin board and look back at the requests, there aren't very many, so I guess I could take a vacation to my old home town. I block off my calendar from Wednesnight, no, Wednesday to next... Monday. That's 6 days in Canterlot and a day and a half to figure out what I wanted to research.
I turn back to the requests and stay looking through them. Some are a bit complicated, while others are quite simple. A few of them even have some extra bits in an attempt to improve their standing, it works. I got 50 bits already and I haven't even lifted a brush. I take the one that had the most bits in it and examine it closer. It calls for three squares, evenly rotated in a circle with a radius of twenty art plotting units, It's a little big, but not too hard overall. I complete the painting within an hour and set it aside to dry as I start the next one.

When I finally check the time seven requests later it is already 3am. I trot upstairs and change into my fancy meeting toga, pearl white with a scarlet sash fastened by a bronze button stamped with my cutie mark, an artist's compass crossed by a ruler and a paintbrush. I head downstairs and start towards the sector 5 meeting house, it's warm and bright under the moon tonight.