Twilight Sparkle shuffled along the cobblestone street with her nose in a copy of A History of the Craft: Magical Artifacts of Equestria by Wandlight Dazzle. Spike trailed a few feet behind her, a large pile of books by the same in his arms. Mansions and estates lined both side of the street, most of them with big names like 'Shores,' 'Pants,' and 'Rich' attached to them. The Canterlot street smelled like old money and freshly cut lawns. Fancy wrought iron gates protected most of the lawns. This early in the morning, there was nopony awake, except, of course, in the house they were visiting.
Spike's stomach growled, and he groaned. "Twilight, can we stop and get something? I'm hungry."
She blinked, and jerked her head out of the book to look at him. "No, Spike. I'm sorry. We're on a very tight schedule. If we stop, we're going to be late."
She picked up her pace, and he hopped along behind her to catch up. "But Twilight, we're like twenty minutes early anyway! It'd only take a minute… can't we please —"
"I said no, Spike."
He sighed, and hobbled after her, doing his best not to spill the stack of tomes. They passed a pair of stone walls and onto a path up to the strangest house she had ever seen, which was saying something. The house combined pine wood, adobe, and shale with Romanesque, Brayoque, and Native Amarecan architecture for one colossal mess that stretched from one end of the hill to the other. She wondered how it even stayed up.
She slammed the book shut and tossed it onto Spike's pile as they ascended toward the door. This was too much for his balance, and he went toppling over onto the lawn. Twilight didn't notice. Groaning, he pulled himself together and began to collect the books.
Twilight trotted up to the French front door, and knocked several times. A moment later, a grumpy-looking unicorn mare answered the door, messy bundle of pale green mane slopping over her eyes and light gray coat. "Yeah? Whosit now?" She blinked. "Whatever you want, I ain't got it, sorry."
She was about to close the door when Twilight shoved her hoof in the door, and smiled. She pulled the door open a bit further and smiled wider, spreading her wings. Maybe if the mare got a good look at her, she'd recognize her.
The mare blinked a second time. "Are you one of those filly scouts?" She yawned, and waved a hoof. "Nah, too old. You one of them door-to-door salesmares? I don't need another bacon-flavored clock, thanks."
Twilight's smile faltered a little bit. "I'm, erm, Twilight Sparkle?" The mare didn't seem to recognize the name. "The pony that asked to meet with the professor today?"
The mare stared at Twilight for a minute, shook her head and frowned. After a moment, she blinked, smiled and waved her in. "Oh, oh, right. Yeah. That's me. Yeah, come in, come in."
Twilight followed her into the living room. It was just as eclectically decorated as the house was designed, though doubtlessly less expensive. Wandlight seated her in a beanbag chair shaped like a clown's head, and ambled around the coffee table to plop down in a rocking chair that looked like it had been salvaged from a garbage dump, for all the wood rot. She noted a clock shaped like a piece of bacon hanging on the wall next to a small study area in the corner.
"So, you're Ms. Wandlight Dazzle? I'm a big fan of your work. I've read all of your books about — "
Wandlight grunted. "It's Daz, hon. Call me Daz. Ain't even sixty yet."
Twilight blinked, and her smile flickered a moment, then returned. "Gosh, there's so much to ask. I'm not even sure where to start." She took a deep breath. "Well… I've heard you're writing another book about magical artifacts. Can you tell me anything about that, Miss, er… Daz?"
Wandlight stared at her over the table. Twilight noticed that only one of her eyes seemed to track her. After half a minute of staring, she said, "Yeah, yeah, sure, I mean, I guess." She twisted her neck and shouted over her shoulder, "Marge!"
Several minutes later, a young mare ambled into the room through a door on the other wall. Her coat was auburn, and her mane was a carefully arranged bluish mess. She wore a sour look. "Yeah?"
Wandlight glanced at her, again with only one eye moving. "Be a dear and go get my notes for me, hon."
She scowled and trudged disappeared back into the hallway. A moment later, Spike entered the room, a stack full of now-slightly-muddy books in his arms. Twilight gestured for him to leave them on the table. He did so, and began wandering around the room, staring at each piece of peculiar furniture like an exhibit in a museum of oddities.
Wandlight leaned toward Twilight and placed her hooves on the coffee table. "So ya wanna know what I've been writing about, huh?"
Twilight nodded. Wandlight sighed, and leaned back. She was silent for a moment. "How much you know about magic socks?"
Twilight blinked. "Erm… magic… socks?"
Wandlight nodded solemnly.
"Well, ah… they're… enchanted?"
Wandlight raised a hoof and pointed at her, grinning like a madmare. "Yup, and do you know what they do?"
Twilight blinked again and shook her head.
"Well, all kinds of things. See, way back in the day, ponies used 'em for all kindsa things. Ritual reagents, status symbols, even wallets. I even heard of one town that worshiped 'em or somethin'. And anything ponies use that much, somepony'll magic it up eventually. And sometimes, that pony's pretty good at magickin'.
"I can't say too much about it, but I'm gettin' pretty darn close to finding the motherlode. The Big One." She settled back into her seat again. "You ever heard of the Hurricane Socks?"
Twilight's eyes snapped back into focus, and she shook her head slightly.
"Well, listen up, hon, 'cause here's what you need to know. They're magic. Not little bitty magic, like some foal'll use to warm her socks on a winter's night. We're talkin' big magic. Alicorn Amulet big. Hay, Elements of Harmony big. All the legends I've been able to find say they were a gift from Starswirl the Bearded to Commander Hurricane way back."
She chuckled. "Now, I'm inclined to say that's a load of hooey, but one thing's for sure, these socks don't screw around. And I'm getting close to finding them."
Twilight gaped at her a moment, and Wandlight smiled back at her. She chose not to mention that she wasn't gaping in awe of her accomplishments, and returned to smiling. "Wow, that's, uhm… ."
Thankfully, she was spared the trouble of coming up with some kind of response when Marge returned to the room. She set a journal and a huge stack of papers down on the table next to each other. Wandlight thanked her, and she plodded back out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Wandlight stared at Twilight for five minutes before speaking. "Now, this is a lot of hard work I've done. I need your promise you aren't gonna steal it."
There had hardly been a promise easier to make in her entire life. She nodded. "I promise."
Wandlight leaned over the coffee table and shuffled through the stack of papers vigorously until she found what she was looking for. She pulled several pages out of the stack and slammed one hoof on the table, then shoved them at her, tapping them with her other hoof. "That, that right there. There's what I know about them socks. Not whereabouts they are, of course." She smiled. "I can't give everything away, hon."
Twilight accepted the pages feebly, only half reading. Wandlight continued to lean over the table, watching her. Fifteen seconds after she had started reading, Wandlight's glass eye popped out of its socket and rolled across the room with a series of loud thunks, and Twilight dropped the pages on the table, startled.
Wandlight's face became concerned. "Ooh, dear." She turned and shouted over her shoulder again. "Marge!"
The young mare returned to the room again, looking even more agitated than before, if it was possible. "What is it?"
Wandlight waved a hoof in the general vicinity of where the glass eye had gone. "My eye, ya twit! I need you to go get it."
She sighed, rolled her eyes and began ambling toward the spot with the air of somepony who had already done the same thing several dozen times that day. Before she could reach eye, however, something made a loud, wet slurp followed by a crunch somewhere behind Twilight. Her head snapped around. Spike crushed whatever it was in his mouth, and swallowed. He stuck his tongue out. "Bleh. Quartzy."
All eyes in the room turned toward him. Something clicked in Twilight's brain. Evidently, the same thoughts were going through Marge's mind; both of their jaws dropped open at the same time.
Twilight gaped. "Spike — you didn't."
Spike's expression became defensive, and he crossed his arms. "What? I told you I was hungry."
Wandlight blinked, apparently not understanding what had gone on. "Well, Marge? Aren'tcha gonna get my eye? I can't go walkin' around like this all day, hon."