The Counting House in Manehattan posted Sheet 12 at 09:40. The sheet records the mare purse survey. One mare in five marked the box for control and confidence. Four marked a lower box. Clover Margin signed the count. She checked the double marks and signed again at 09:51.
Form 8-L is the instrument. The Office of the Purse placed it in the winter book. Question 4 asks whether the mare "holds the purse, names the fee, and can move a bit without asking." Five boxes sit under that line. Only the top box counts as control and confidence together. The others read "names the fee only," "holds a wage chit," "asks at the window," and "does not know the book." Margin wrote the rule on the sheet. Two marks take the lower mark. A blank stays blank. Only a mark in a box enters the count.
The sample was 2,400 mares. The Manehattan window took 600 across six days. Branch books sent the rest. Four hundred and eighty marked the top box. That is one in five. Another 1,120 marked "names the fee only" or "holds a wage chit." The remaining 800 marked the bottom two. A mare at the middle of the count could name the rent. She could not name the sum left after the window fee.
The Crown Purse stamped receipt at 11:05. The stamp carried the hour and a harmony initial. Sheet 12's figure stayed off it.
The seal on Decree 40-C carried Princess Celestia's name. A harmony clerk laid the paper on the lobby desk at 15:40. The decree is two pages. Page one thanks the top box and calls the other four mares "pre-confident." Page two orders a brass plaque over every fee window. The required line is "You Are Already the Purse." An assembly is set for Thursday at 08:00. The decree names one purchase and one supply deduction. The wage schedule stands. The fee schedule stands.
Felicity Bit read the decree standing. Her office is Crown Commissioner for Mare Confidence. The reading took nine minutes. The Manehattan plaque was already on the nail.
"Control is a posture," Bit said. "We are issuing the posture on Thursday."
Margin stayed seated. Postings on her desk are public after 09:40.
"The sheet says one in five," Margin said. "I counted the marks twice. Pre-confident is not a box on Form 8-L."
Ness Quill reached Window 2 at 16:12. She keeps the night book at a cloth house on Bridle Row. She had marked "names the fee only." She brought her wage chit, her rent line, and the fee card, and asked if the crown had changed the mark. A correction costs two bits. The plaque hangs above that figure. The two-bit line stayed in view.
Quill paid the two bits. The clerk issued a ribbon for Decree 40-C. The ribbon read STEADY. The receipt called the ribbon harmony supply and took one bit more. The correction went to the confidence desk. That desk keeps ribbons and plaque orders. Margin's desk keeps the ledger.
"I know the rent," Quill said. "I know the fee. A ribbon is not a third number I can spend."
Rarity keeps a shop book on Bridle Row. She filed Form 8-L for herself and four mares on her payroll. All five marks sat in a lower box. She read Sheet 12 and left the ribbon on the counter. She was gone before Bit finished.
"I balance the book at close," Rarity said. "The plaque does not balance the book."
The purchase order lists 400 plaques at six bits. Branch supply is charged 2,400 bits. Margin initialed the slip at 17:01 and wrote the Sheet 12 figure beside the charge. The Office of the Purse answered by tube at 17:05. The slip calls Decree 40-C a seal on an existing courtesy. On the office card, courtesy skips the wage board. Bits from the seal stop at plaques and ribbons.
At 17:22 the confidence desk returned Quill's correction. The note said the mark had been heard. The return form has a box for heard and a box for amended. Only heard was checked. Sheet 12 still showed 480 in the top box. The receipt still showed two bits and the ribbon. Her top box was empty.
At 17:40 the confidence desk tubed Quill onto the Thursday line, number 61. The tube carried no amended mark. Margin filed it at 17:44 and wrote "queue, not count" on the slip. Window 2 left the two-bit card on the nail for morning.
