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Clarity writes up the events of the defeat and reform of Nightmare Moon, including the fact that her crown is apparently continuing to exist, and makes two copies - the original in personal notebook stash, one tucked into the back of "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide", and one sent to Princess Celestia via mailing spell with the suggestion that it could be published in its own volume especially if either Princess would care to add notes on the parts Clarity didn't personally witness.
And she sets about settling into Ponyville.
She learns her way around - here's where she can buy carrots and bunched dandelions and clover sprouts; here's where she can get a case for her crown and cases for everpony else's necklace so they don't have to wear them or leave them lying around loose; here's a shortcut between Guiding's house and the tower the twins live in together. This is when this little town wakes up in the morning and this is when everything closes at night. This is what her friends do all day: Cherry Cordial farms and looks after critters. Brightblaze tinkers with gadgets kind of singlemindedly (though she also flies). Silver Streak plays violin and and reads and wanders around looking at things. Guiding Star does fortune-telling for spare bits and belongs to a dance group and volunteers for anything going on in town that could use amateur decorating (Joy is often with her when she does this). Joy also wanders around being sociable and helpful and cooks, itinerantly, for anypony who'll spare him kitchen space.
And Clarity learns the organizational system of the library, with Blueberry's considerable help, and she studies and explores.
And when she's been in residence for just shy of a week, she gets a letter from the Princess, which contains six tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala. Aww, that's thoughtful. Clarity's never been before.
She goes out to see which of her friends she'll run into first if she takes a meandering path through town.
allcomplete
ipso-amore
And then all of the ducks are fed and their news is heard and their concerns are addressed.
"Next up: bears," says Cordy.
"Next up: bears," says Cordy.
ipso-amore
"Friendly enough. I wouldn't recommend antagonizing them, but they're not going to try to eat you if all you do is show up and watch while I talk to them."
allcomplete
"Okay. I'm not going to - I'm not even coming up with anything slightly tempting for bear-antagonizing purposes."
allcomplete
"Unless they're antagonized by weird things? I don't know much about bears. Animals in general, really, beyond common knowledge."
ipso-amore
"Nothing you're likely to do by accident. They're pretty laid-back. Yelling at them or making snide remarks would be a bad idea, that kind of thing."
allcomplete
"How much do critters understand when ponies who aren't you are doing the talking, anyhow?" wonders Clarity.
ipso-amore
"It varies. Seb's basically fluent," the raccoon smiles, "and the bears have a pretty good vocabulary, but bees tend to understand almost nothing but tone of voice and hummingbirds have trouble with verbs."
ipso-amore
"They don't pick up or remember them as easily, and they confuse them for each other. I'm really not sure why. It might have something to do with verbs being more complicated to recognize, because they have a bunch of different forms, and nouns just come in singular and plural and most other words don't vary at all."
allcomplete
"Huh, I guess that makes sense. I've considered getting a pet of some kind, but never actually did it - there was never quite enough reason to or a critter that seemed very much like it needed to live with me."
ipso-amore
"Yeah. Sebastian's a good fit with me, but I don't think I'd want to get a pet just to have a pet."
ipso-amore
"He lives nearby. We hit it off the first time we talked, and I asked if he wanted to learn how to read and write, and he said sure, and it went from there."
allcomplete
"Aww."
Clarity does not antagonize the bears (or scare the birds, or offend the frogs, or distress the bunnies, or alarm the mice). She bids Cordy goodbye after they've made the entire rounds and then she goes back to Ponyville proper, meaning to find dinner of some sort and then read all evening.
Clarity does not antagonize the bears (or scare the birds, or offend the frogs, or distress the bunnies, or alarm the mice). She bids Cordy goodbye after they've made the entire rounds and then she goes back to Ponyville proper, meaning to find dinner of some sort and then read all evening.
allcomplete
"Yep! Everypony's coming, so I suppose you are too. And then I went with Cordy on her rounds and now I'm starving."
joyfulnoise
"The cafe just around the corner does a really good daffodil and daisy sandwich, and I bet they're not busy at this time of day, sound good?"
joyfulnoise
"Awesome!"
He leads her to the cafe, which proves to be fairly fancy, and they are offered a table right away - it's exactly as unbusy as he predicted.
He leads her to the cafe, which proves to be fairly fancy, and they are offered a table right away - it's exactly as unbusy as he predicted.
allcomplete
Clarity orders the suggested sandwich. With extra alfalfa sprouts and on the tomato bread roll.
"What have you been up to?"
"What have you been up to?"
joyfulnoise
Joy goes for multigrain toast with jam.
"Nothing much. Lazy day," he says cheerfully. "Talked to some people, went rock hunting up in the hills."
"Nothing much. Lazy day," he says cheerfully. "Talked to some people, went rock hunting up in the hills."