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Candice asked, "When are you going to get on with it? You haven't even gotten romantic with anyone."

I paused in rubbing her feet. "This isn't romantic?"

"In the story, silly. Other one." I switched feet, and she got back to peeling the orange. She went on. "Are you having trouble on account of me?"

"Well, maybe. I'm here, with you, not there."

"Exactly. Real-you are here, but story-you is there. He's not mine." She popped a slice in my mouth. "I'm very good at compartmentalization. Aren't you?"

"Not so much, actually."

Candice almost froze, seriously concerned. "Do I need to worry about you, then - what with the party?"

"Worry...? I thought you weren't one to demand exclusivity, considering how you kind of organized the first one."

"Omar, you know your evo-psych. What female is going to mind exclusivity?"

"Very few, yes. You'd given me the impression that you were an exception. The phrase 'man-harem' comes to mind."

"That was a joke. And more to the point, there's giving you some latitude, but not minding you completely wandering off would be completely different. Was that party a bad idea?"

"Oh, no. I mean, I'm affected, for sure. But if I were a total amnesiac and given the choice between you three, my choice would be very clear. And I think the same goes for the others. Yes, the party was awesome and sustainable, and I would like another one."

"As soon as you fulfill the penalty for the previous, mmkay?"

"Not quite yet. Soon."

---

I made it to the schoolhouse just a few minutes before the class letting out for the day. I listened for signs of advanced mathematics, but only heard grammar drills.

A few copies of the new school newspaper were sitting on a stump near the door; I picked it up. The headline was 'Whole town joins in game'. Since this was my main lead, I read what they had found intently.

The newspaper did indeed indicate the origin of the game as being an invention of one student, Scootaloo, improving it from 'traditional' sources. Okay, and who popularized it? I'm sure kids have proposed games before, but Rarity said this was a first.

Towards the end was the detail I was hoping for - the teacher, Cheerilee, had encouraged some adults to join, after which it had grown greatly. And another game was planned for this evening?

The sidebar indicated the rules. It was, as I'd guessed, based off capture-the-flag. There were two flags for each side, and secret agents on each side who couldn't capture or take flags, and a few other rules that I lost interest in once I'd ascertained that fouls were indeed properly covered. It doesn't seem like a great vector for encouraging sports violence. Hockey would be more worrisome, or soccer, or... uh-oh.

The facing page gave a response from certain adults, calling for more traditional games like soccer. Odd. I entered via a land oscillating between Africa and Europe, but they use the American term.

School abruptly let out, and I watched the schoolfoals exit in a stampede. Once they were past, I stuck my head in and found Cheerilee. She was sitting at her desk, reading papers. She looked up and blinked. "Why, hello, Onar! I didn't expect to have you drop by!"

I realized I hadn't worked out a pretext. "My name is Omar, actually." Her eyes widened, perhaps from embarrassment. "I was wondering..." I couldn't ask about the game right away. Oh right! The board! "Well, last night I saw some math on the board that I kind of recognized."

She smiled. "Of course. I certainly hope you'd recognize any math we're doing here."

"Really. Like... the gradient of overbarred epsilon mu?" I snagged some chalk and wrote that on the board. "If an arbitrary adult around here is expected to understand that, color me impressed."

"Oh, that." She sheepishly smiled. "It's nothing."

"Why hide it?"

"I'm a teacher. What use would I have for..." she drifted off.

"For vector calculus and nonlinear optics?"

"... right." She looked down.

"Do you need to need it? If you find it interesting, great. I'm studying quantitative evolutionary biology, but I follow other fields. I'm an amateur astronomer, for instance. Fixed up the telescope in the library."

Cheerilee looked up happily. "Did you? I tried my hand at it my first year here. So, about the math. I was just remembering what it was like to be a student, so I got some books that would push me. To hold on to the feeling."

"That's a great idea! Now that you point it out, my older teachers were mostly worn down, bored and boring, but one kept up with her field and she was lively." Even though I was agreeing, I still got the impression she thought I'd 'caught' her and was devising an excuse.

Fortunately for the conversation, my mention of other teachers changed the topic to something less touchy, and we talked for a long time about education, funny things teachers and students have done, curricula, the foundations of number theory (I was careful to avoid any implication we were doing anything erudite).... She was at home in this subject much more than I'd have expected any of my grade-school teachers to have been. She didn't offer anything of her own - probably still too reticent on the subject - but she was following me easily. Is it... socially unacceptable to seek higher education, or something? Am I breaking a taboo that she also secretly breaks? That seems unlikely, unless she ends up swearing me to secrecy or something. Or if she's Discord's agent, and he wants me to out her.

That line of thought began to give me a headache. I broke off, trying to get tactical. Cheerilee was still a suspect for promoting that game. What could I do to draw Discord out?

But I didn't think of anything, and she said. "Oh my, look at the time! I have to grade this homework!"

A glance at the clock - we'd been talking for two and a half hours. I was suddenly reminded of my first girlfriend. She'd had much the same reaction after we first had our 'hey you' moment that had lasted three hours, only she had had to do the homework.

"I'm sorry for taking your time."

"Oh, don't think anything of it."

My stomach growled, and I turned to go. As I stepped out, her stomach growled too.

I dropped by the bakery and checked in on how the helouwa were selling. We were down to two, from thirty-six. I asked for my share of the proceeds, bought the last two, and headed back to the schoolhouse.

"Sorry for making you miss dinner too." I handed her the nut cookie, and she nervously smiled. Back off a little, Omar. "Good night."

With some relief, she said, "Thanks, Omar. Good night."

I exited as graciously as I could, picked up the newspaper. Okay. So, what have I got? She seems... well, I don't think Discord would have let her hang around me for close on three hours with such a good excuse to get away. And there she is, still grading. Unless she's grading to cause confusion, it's not her. What leads might I have?

I couldn't think of a thing, and my mind kept coming back to Cheerilee. She was either even more knowledgeable than she was letting on, or very quick indeed. Her cutie mark hadn't stood out as intellectual, really - though I couldn't remember what it was. And at this point, I didn't think it wise to go back and check... or... a quick glance back through the window: a trio of daisies. Yeah, not exactly higher mathematics. Huh.

I returned to the library and sank onto the bed, wondering what Discord could be up to.

"Constraints breed creativity, you know."

I turned, and found Discord leaning against the wall.

"What?"

"Constraints breed creativity. It was hard work, but I've set things up to go crazy in three days. I don't even have to do anything else, and there really isn't anything you can do to stop it. After all, you just talked with the one I touched, for two hours, and didn't notice a thing. All Celestia's cleverness with the rules was for naught."

"So the game was you."

"The first one was me. The second one, incidental. But what are you going to do with all this I'm telling you? I warn you, the only way to not make things worse is to do nothing. You won't be able to do that, will you?" He chuckled, then let it grow to a full laugh, then disappeared in a puff.

Well, shit.

Calm down, Omar. What I know now is that Discord wants me to believe that Cheerilee was his pick, and that there's some convoluted plan that will hatch in three days. Which is... the first working day after the summer sun celebration. That's kind of what I'd been assuming anyway. But the rest is just to throw me off, get me to second-guess myself. There's no way his plan is so stable that literally nothing I can do will disrupt it.