"I was just exploring, but now I've lost track of where I am relative to anything I've already got understood," sighs Clarity. "How could you tell I was lost?" She hadn't been exactly panicking.

"You were walking and looking around you in a way that I recognized as lost. If you walk between those buildings there, continue on for a while, and then turn right after you pass the cafe, you'll find yourself in sight of the main street," she says.

"Do you just sort of watch everypony all the time in case somepony makes a wrong turn?" asks Clarity, noting the directions.

"I watch everything all the time, to see what I find out. Sometimes what I find out is that somepony is lost."

"...Should I let you get back to it? I'm still figuring out how much of other ponies' time it's okay to take up."

"It's not what I'd call an urgent task. I do not mind spending some time with you."

"Okay, cool." Clarity starts in the indicated direction, taking careful note of landmarks. "What other kinds of things do you notice? I bet ponies who've lived here for a long time tend not to get lost, and I think that's most of the ponies here."

"I notice who is in the market and what they are buying or selling. I notice how the plants in town are faring and which ones could use more sun or more water. I notice who is out and about and what they are doing."

"I can guess what you do about the plants, but what about the rest of it?"

"Sometimes nothing. The things I find out are not always useful. But perhaps I see somepony who is disappointed that the asparagus stall sold out before they arrived, and I can tell them that a different stall is also selling asparagus that day. Or perhaps I see somepony who is debating whether or not to bring their umbrella on a walk, and I can land and ask their route and tell them the immediate schedule for those areas."

"You can tell if somepony's trying to decide about an umbrella from up in the air?"

"Perhaps not with perfect reliability, but yes."

"How do you do it? This sounds awesome. Even if I don't get the aerial vantage point, I like knowing things."

She smiles slightly. "Well - it's really just looking at things," she says. "Seeing them properly. And then drawing conclusions from what I see. If somepony is fretting indecisively in their doorway and scanning the sky for clouds, and I see an umbrella behind them, it's likely that they are trying to decide whether or not they need it. If two ponies are approaching the same crossroads from different directions and neither is looking where they are going, I should land and warn one."

"Huh. I'm usually thinking about other things too much to figure them out like that - I'll be walking down the street trying to compose a report on friendship for Celestia, I should send the first one in soon, or I'm trying to learn my way around and can't interpret things like that at the same time. That's impressive multitasking."

"I have considerable practice," she says. "I'm curious about your report on friendship. What notes have you gathered so far?"

"Well, I'm hoping to stick to more or less one theme per letter, in case the rate of new observations drops off after a while and she expects the reports to keep up a the same frequency, but possible topics include the one I just mentioned - that is, how much time ponies should spend with their friends and how to ask about it - and something about what friends do together, and something about how talking about past history can make them feel closer, and something about presents in general like the tickets or how Cordy always winds up feeding me something, and I might have a couple other things written down but I don't have the right notebook with me."

"Cordy likes to distribute food," she says. "I have noticed that. She once told me that it's because it's a simple friendly gesture she happens to be well placed to make."

"It's nice of her. It makes me think of tasty things whenever I think of her."

"That may also be an intended effect."

"It's a very clever one! I'd take the idea but I'm not - well placed to."

"You could do something similar with books, but I think fewer ponies enjoy those as much."

"Yes. And they probably wouldn't read them right away while visiting."

"Also true."