A turn of the key powered down the roaring engine of my old Audi. Me and Cordelia stepped out of the car without much delay. Pressing the side of the intercom, the voice of Professor Lutece appeared through the speakers.

“Hello? Who is speaking?” She asked. Cordelia then leaned in to speak on the intercom.

“It’s me and Patrick. May we come in?”

There was a small pause, before the professor spoke again.

“Ah, yes. Do come in, you can leave your car here.”

A large bolt shifted as the metal gates slowly opened, revealing a large gravel pathway, leading to a light cream coloured mansion. Without saying anything, we just continued and walked down the pathway.

This wasn’t the first time that we went to see the Luteces for something. Both of us had to go there when we applied for their private course in physics and chemistry. At first, we found it a tad bit off how we weren't allowed in certain areas of the house, and with the fancy interior designs; it looked like it was made in the late Nineteenth to early Twentieth century. But we didn’t mind it, and besides. We eventually liked going there.

“Admiring the scenery Trixie?” Cordelia asked, as I was stopping and looking around the gardens surrounding the pathway. She then pieced it together in her head what was coming up next. And since she had now seen the show, I couldn’t resist.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is admiring how this garden is hydrated!” I announced, giving a more pronounced tone to mimic Trixie’s voice, leading to a quiet, yet awkward giggle from Cordelia. She understood it, but I still slightly doubted she understood my connection to it as much as I could.

A loud bang resonated around us when we knocked on the large doors to the house. Shortly followed by Rosalind opening the door.
"Yes, Patrick and Cordelia. Do come in," she stated, whilst still oddly wearing her formal attire. Me and Cordelia came inside.

The house was just like how it was when we first visited. Except there were some minor differences with paintings on the walls and some furniture had been moved around. But the walls still had that tea-coloured brown to them; and the yellow lamps still flickered when we walked by them.

"Do you want any tea?" Rosalind asked; while signalling to Robert, who was holding a steaming teapot. I shook my head in response, but Robert handed a nice cup of tea to both me and Cordelia. I smiled nervously as I both looked at the teacup and the Luteces himself.

“Why would you call yourself English if you refuse even a cup of tea?” Robert stated with his standard snarky tone of voice. “Milk or sugar?”

I moaned slightly as Cordelia sat down and started to sip her own cup of tea.

“Milk... No sugar please, Mr Lutece.”

Mr Lutece turned to Rosalind as he elegantly poured in a small amount of milk into my tea.

“Told you... Always trying to watch his weight,” he blurted as a snide comment. He then walked off without saying much else.

Rosalind sat down on a traditional 19th century chair while she sipped her own tea. And so the atmosphere remained comforting, yet cold for a few moments. There was a nerve-racking ticking clock in the corner of the room. It wasn’t loud, but its metallic clockwork did dig into my head for a little while when I politely sipped the tea that was forced into my hands.

“Are we ready to talk?” She blurted suddenly, causing me to stutter with my tea for a moment. She turned to me and straightened her tie whilst still keeping a fixed eye on me. “Would you be ok working; I know how much you inhaled that day. And if you are feeling in anyway nauseated by any work I set you today-”

“Professor!” I interrupted, holding back a cough, “I am fine, and have been feeling fine since the evening of that day.”

The Professor cleared her throat, with a slight insulted look in her eyes. And then began to talk to Cordelia: “Mrs Cross. Would you happen to know where the library is?”

Cordelia promptly shook her head whilst still sipping her tea. Rosalind chuckled quietly and continued:

“Don’t worry, I just need you to organize some books in a few sections. Robert will take you there,” She spoke with a quiet, yet comforting tone. Only to have Robert appear in the door we originally came in through.

Cordelia then began to follow him into the library as Rosalind put down her own tea.
"So then Patrick. Would you kindly follow me into the study please?" She asked politely, standing up as if to also guide me.

I was lead along the large, dimly lit corridor by the professor, still sipping some tea on the way to remain polite to the professors. But eventually we came to a section where there was practically no lighting at all. So the professor had to light a candle.

"We have to divert power from the lights in this area to save electricity. Do you mind?" She then came up to a door at the end of a large corridor.

Opening the door with a small creak; a little amount of natural light came through the curtains on the other side of the room through the door. I came to see a small desk in the middle of the room, and several shelves of books lining the edge of the room. But the thing that caught my interest the most was on the central desk itself.

A large; gorgeous green diamond. From the shade of green, I could tell this was some kind of emerald.

"Patrick, once we are done here; you can have a look at the Emerald. But for now, we have to do this detention," said the professor; with a very annoyed tone. "See those tapes?"

She then pointed to a large collection of recorded cassette tapes.

"I need you to run through all of those and check if they work on the voxophone," she stated, but before I could ask; she pointed to a large, 20's style record player; with a small box to place cassette tapes and a small handle to perhaps help keep it going.

She then began to walk out of the study. "When you're done; do see miss Cross and yourself out; but if she is not available: please take a look around the house," She stopped just before closing the door. "And please don't go upstairs." She then slammed the door sharply.

The Lutece’s collection of tapes was... Interesting to say at the least. With most of them consisting of either Rosalind babbling on about some complex science experiments, or an old man with religious or very racist beliefs. I thought when listening to him why my parents had ever gotten me baptised in the first place. But it wasn’t long before I had gone through the entire collection.

Eventually I decided to look around a bit of the office before I would wonder around the house, just to chew away some time before Cordie would finish. There was one phrase in one tape about how the worship of God in the medievil era was much more efficent than now, a phrase saying, "The Queen must bring the King his armor, before he engages in battle." It stuck in my head for a while, before fading into the inner noise of my thoughts.

The tapes; despite interesting or disturbing to listen to: got old fairly quickly. So I looked around to see if there were any other tapes scattered around the office. It was a bit difficult to find any more due to the room being lit by natural light alone; but I did find one.

A small little tape marked;

“Five Score Divided By Four, the Unwritten Universe.”

I was naturally intrigued by this; my inner maths determined that the equation would total up to 25. So I thought it would be some kind of tape about maths, or have some kind of complex codeword name to confuse the listener, and that Unwritten Universe thing made no sence in itself.. But the name itself seemed oddly familiar.
What could it be? Could it be a maths tape, like I thought? A random monologue like the other ones? Or even a-

I stopped my train of thought from going down that track any further; I popped open the Tape player again and slipped the tape into the box. Giving the handle a couple of turns, the central disk of the player began to spin and a few sounds of dirt on the empty tape began to sound on the small speaker attached to it. I reached over and began to press the play button.

“I wouldn’t do that yet,” said an unfamiliar voice from the doorway. Causing me to take my finger off the button and turn to its unfamiliar source.

A girl, looking about my age, stood at the door. She had short-ish brown hair and wore a slightly outdated blue coat over a white shirt.

“Are you?” I began, raising an uncertain finger up to point at a picture of the Luteces on the wall.

“No, I’m not their child or a houseworker. I come here on my own accord,” she replied with an american accent. Not a sort of harsh accent that Cordie would usually do to make fun of cheerleaders but a more gentle one like Twilight’s voice.

I regained my focus slightly and addressed the tape again.
“Why shouldn’t I listen to this?”

She smirked and replied; “Spoilers!” before walking out of the room.

A small moment passed before I heard some footsteps again. And the girl appeared again with an angry face. “Come on then!” She yelled, before disappearing again.

I ran out after her, abandoning the tape and following her down a corridor.

She seemed to like me following her, so we both decided to run down the corridor, leaving me to trip slightly a couple of times before we came to a set of large; antique stairs. I hesitated while the girl ran up the stairs, since I knew that the Luteces were especially focused on me NOT going upstairs.

“Are you going to keep following me, Patrick?” She mocked, with an excited glint in her eyes.

I flinched back slightly, as not only as she knew my name; but she was openly trying to make me disobey the rules.

“No, I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. But I still kept my eyes fixed upon the girl, who at this time was glaring with a snide smile at me from the small balcony between the floors. “I can’t disobey their rules.”
She chuckled slightly, raising her hand up to her face.
“Don’t you want to know how I know your name, Patrick? Just think outside the box a little, my little Brony,” she ran off, leaving me even more stunned. I had never met this girl in my entire life, and the fact that she knew my name and the fact of me being a Brony was a little disconcerting.

I never usually told people about my Bronyism, except people I knew were fellow Bronies, or close family members. I never told the Luteces about it, how could she know?

I needed to find out how she knew, that meant going up the stairs. And I did so cautiously to prevent anyone else from knowing too.

The upper floors of the house were pretty much like the ground floor, still looking like it was taken directly out of the 19th century, still stained with that brown tint and not very well litten. Leaving me to stumble around a little looking for that girl again.

“Hello? Strange girl?” I yelled out, but still keeping my voice down slightly. Eventually I turned a corner and found a light switch.

I turned it on to prevent myself from stumbling over anything again, to see the girl standing at the corner. Before I knew it, she’d thrown herself onto me and caused me to fall over into another room with a loud thump.

“MMPH!” I tried to yell out, as I found this weird girl lying on top of me. And... KISSING me.

Whoever this girl was... Was obviously very deranged. Why did she do this?
I forced her off my body, and turned my head away from her.

“Are you ok? Who are you?” I yelled, throwing her body off mine to the side, causing her to giggle again.

“Oh, stupid. My name’s Elizabeth... Elizabeth Comstock. But I don’t need to know your name. I already know too much!” She blurted out, standing up to grab a chair. I, on the other hand, started to crawl towards the door. Yes... She was very disturbed indeed.

“How do you know my name?” I asked, while still moving backwards slightly. Causing her to tilt her head curiously.

“You told me dunderhead. Like how you told me about My Little Pony,” she smiled, then leant over to me. “Well... Not you... Exactly...” I was baffled by this again, she was clearly out of her mind, but as she had done at the stairs, she had made me curious. So I let her continue again. “Even though I know some things, I still know little about you! So, tell me about yourself.”

I began to point at the door and speak, but Elizabeth stopped me. “Don’t worry Patch. It’ll be a short while before the Luteces come looking for you, and about the same amount of time for Cordelia comes up. So we have some time... Tell me about yourself!” Now saying the last line a bit more insistently. Making me even more worried, she oddly knew too much. But it just improved my theory of her just being completely nuts.

“You’re insane,” I suggested, causing her to laugh again. “That further proves my point.”

She settled down slightly and breathed deeply, before smiling nervously. “Ok... I knew that first meetings would probably freak you out.”

She twiddled her fingers together and started muttering to herself. I couldn’t make out most of the things she said; but I could make out certain things like: “Think Elizabeth... Think... What would HE do...”
“I follow you a lot online, your artwork is especially good. It’s easy to find you since you name your accounts the same- you’re still freaked out by me aren’t you?” I shook my head, but still felt a little grateful that she still wanted me not to be freaked out by it.

Sure she was weird, but at the same time she was interesting. I sat down on another chair and let her continue again. “Tell me a few things about yourself then. It’s rare that I get an opportunity to meet someone like this.” She put her hands between her legs and leant forward. Turning on a small lamp; I sat back on the chair I had recently acquired.

“I was born in London. Moved to Oxford in a young age; before I went to a private school where I met my friends Cordelia, Josh, Elliott, Daniel, Hannah and Tertia. I studied in art for O Levels, but after writing a few graphic novels, I eventually came to work in the sciences. I was eventually sent to a university to study with the Lutece twins.”

Elizabeth interrupted, holding her hand up. Obviously not interested with my school life and career.
“Don’t bore me with schools and hard sums! I get enough of that at home. The thing I see most prominent in your stuff online is that Pony stuff! Tell me more about that!”

My eyes shifted around for a second, then I hunched my shoulders and pouted my lips. I couldn’t see any harm of talking about Ponies to her.

“I guess it started when I was back in secondary school. I just found it lying around the internet... I saw a few episodes; and I was hooked. I think it was mostly the action that got me into it.”

She was grinning with her head resting on her hands, so I continued; “It takes place in a beautifully colourful world. Much more vibrant than most other shows. The characters are so vivid and relatable. Every situation- well, most situations I feel myself in. It helped me learn some life lessons.” I felt myself leaning forward, as a surge of nostalgia seemed to rush over me.

“Tell me about some of the characters! They sound fun!”
“Ok. It is quite a lot of detail to get into.” I leant back again and heavily sighed. “Well... There’s the booksmart Twilight; she had a cute design, yet I feel focus was drawn on her a little too much.

“-There’s Fluttershy, she had a really cute personality, she would whimper and shy away from most social situations, she had good interactions with animals, and could lash out at people if they were to ever harm her friends.

“-Applejack’s an interesting one. She’s honest when she needs to be, and will always try her best to support an apple farm that she owns. She is probably the most sympathetic of the characters, since she only really wanted to support her farm.

“-Rarity is a dressmaker in the town of Ponyville, the town the show is set in, she had a funny little sister. There’s not too much focus on her, but you see her pressure in trying to keep loyal to her friends and her love for a climb to fame to open a major dress shop in the capital of Equestria.

“-There’s the hyperactive Pinkie Pie, a completely adorable and insane pony, she didn’t really have a prime motif, but she always likes to cheer people up... And always made me smile whenever she appeared, with her adorable smile and almost inextinguishable happiness...”

I sighed for a moment as I felt a few hairs rise on the back of my neck.

"And then there's Rainbow Dash, a fast, agile pony, who possesses an amazing flying ability. Throughout the series, she was always trying to achieve things for her own personal goals, but still remaining loyal to her friends. She had one of the most interesting personalities of all the ponies. I remember dressing up as her for a convention a while back.” I chuckled a little, when thinking about how silly I thought of myself, wearing a big rainbow-coloured wig and furry wings.

“I love thinking about this kinda stuff, you should have seen the show when it was on air.” I sighed, while I saw Elizabeth still leaning forward and listening closely.

“Ok, I’m guessing you want to hear about plot don’t you?” I asked, responding in a nod.

I proceeded to recount a detailed description of all the episodes of most of season one, beginning to see the most of Elizabeth’s excitement and crazy wide-eyed stare begin to die down. I remember when I had gotten up to “The Best Night Ever” when-

“What are you DOING up here?” An, unfortunately, familiar voice blurted out from outside the door, causing me to turn around. To be met by an angry glare from Madame Lutece.

Elizabeth nervously looked around, trying to think.
“Mrs Lutece! It’s not his fault, I tricked him into coming up here! I just wanted to talk to him!”
Mrs Lutece, however, was not taking any of this.

“No! I told Patrick specifically that he should NOT come up here, and even he should have known that before following you up here!”

Elizabeth quickly dropped her brows and pouted her lips slightly.
“He couldn’t resist... I,” she paused, with obvious nerve issues. “Did That.”

The silence afterwards was eerie, as Mrs Lutece glared angrily at Elizabeth. As I saw a slight twitch in her eye. Before I could do anything else-

“Miss Cross is downstairs, I’d appreciate if you left as soon as possible Patrick.”

I sensed that Elizabeth was really in for it, probably for that display in information about me she had earlier. But now I just wanted to get out of the house, since something about Mrs Lutece’s bad mood made me really unnerved.

I received a small smile and a; “thank you” mouthed by Elizabeth before briskly walking out of the room, down the stairs and navigating the large maze of corridors before I came up to Cordelia.

“You ok? I’ve been waiting for you for a quarter of an hour now!” She asked, while we both left through the front door.

“I’m fine, Everest?” I asked, referring to a local curry restaurant that we both loved to go to. I brung it up to change the topic of the conversation. To shortly be stopped by Cordelia,

“Hold it buddy! Calm down!” She yelled, forcing me with her hand to sit down. I sighed softly and gripped my head. Shortly to be followed by Robert appearing with another cup of tea.

“Do accept my apologies for her behavior,” He said smugly, straightening his posture with the tea still in hand. “May I have a word?” Now addressing the both of us.

We couldn’t see the harm in his words. But I was hyperventilating a little at this time, so I couldn’t stand up properly. So muttering ‘smile smile smile’ under my breath, I was helped up by Cordelia and after giving me an UNhelpful slap on the back to help with my mini-panic attack.

“Are you singing Pinkie’s song?” She asked, a bit breathily as we both walked into the drawing room again.

There was Mr Lutece, sipping his tea and sitting down on another antique armchair. After putting the cup down on the arm, he leant forward slightly and put his hands together.

“I have heard... In a few days... That it’s both of your birthdays... I suppose you both will be?”

“25” We both replied, almost in complete unison. With a slight twinge of confusion.

Professor Lutece leant back and drummed his fingers together for a moment.
"25 eh? Do you know anyone else... Also reaching that age on the 1st of May on this fine year?”

I thought to myself for a moment, remembering some of my other friends. Even some that I hadn’t seen in awhile.

“Just a friend from my old school called Hannah," upon saying this, that phrase from earlier about Kings and armor popped into my head, but I chose to ignore that thought and continue without hesitation, "another called Alex, and a few pen friends online,” I said, then Mr Lutece waved his hand to make me continue. “There’s a guy in America called Dave, we met in California for a convention a few years ago, and regularly get in touch through internet communications, then there’s other people. Shef, from the navy of Australia, Rachael and Tess, also from america, Jenny Smith, Steve Antello-”

I stopped mid-sentence, and looked to the side nervously “Dodgy family” I muttered under my voice. “And John- a good fellow. Probably the one who I see the most of in my times online.”

Mr Lutece then handed me a small leaflet.

“I would like it if you and your friends would be happy to join me, Rosalind and...have you become acquainted with Miss Elizabeth?” I nodded, “Yes, miss Elizabeth for a special kind of birthday get-together to celebrate your achievements throughout your time with us, and to celebrate this major milestone in your lives!”

I looked around a bit, “Like I said, Mr Lutece. Those people are my PEN Friends, I doubt that they’ll all fly over from America, Military Duty or Nutso Families for one night!” I looked briefly at the leaflet. “But I think the ones in the country would be happy to join us. Thank you Mr Lutece.”

Mr Lutece nodded silently, as a small smile appeared on his long, straight expression.

“I will see you in a few days then you two. Now be off with you, you have a curry to get to.”

We proceeded to walk out of the room, with a quick tip of the heads to signify thanks. And then walked down the narrow pathway back to the old car.

I turned around for a moment and looked at the house again. While Cordelia continued to walk away, I looked back at a window that particularly took my interest. And there was Elizabeth.

She waved down to me, with signs that she had been crying in her eyes. But she still held that demented smile that she had greeted me with when I was in the upper floors of the house, but she was evidently getting my attention for some reason.
She stopped waving and began to mouth something, “Five Score Divided By Four” I could make out slightly. As I remember seeing on that tape, which in turn caused Déja Vu.

I mouthed back to her a simple ‘what?’, only to have her grin and give me a thumbs up. Before she stepped out of sight and back in doors, and leaving me baffled to even walk.

Cordelia and I got into the car and I started up the old engine, while recounting the strange experience I just had with that girl.

How did she know about me?

What was so bad ABOUT her knowing about me?

What was with her fascination with MY obsession with My Little Pony?

Why did she warn me away from that tape?

My mind was overworked, so I disengaged the handbrake and began to drive back into the city. With Cordelia also looking through the small booklet beside me. I smiled, thinking about the curry that we would soon enjoy, and just tried to look on the bright side of the situation. But I couldn’t, since throughout that visit, one question had been on my mind, and even stronger now that Elizabeth had said it.

What does “Five Score Divided By Four” mean to me?

Author's Note

In this chapter I give the first real example of Elizabeths powers and the Five Score treatment.

I tried to make Luteces as close as I could to the originals from Bioshock, while also making Elizabeth the slightly mad but smart person in my roster of characters.

I hope the shout-out to my personal 5S/4 fics aren't too pretentious.