Truthseeker

by RB_

Larceny on the Graveyard Shift 1

“Huh,” Lyra said. “You know, I used to have a friend who lived around here.”

“Oh, really?” Bon Bon said. She led them down a marbled side street. The two had arrived in Canterlot on the train fifteen minutes before.

“Yeah. We kinda lost touch after I moved though. Actually, I hear she kinda lost touch with everybody for a while. Minnie—er, Minnuette—says she’s started to come out of her shell again, though.”

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met any of your old Canterlot friends,” Bon Bon said.

“Really? They come to Ponyville, like, all the time.”

“Maybe you just never introduced us, then.”

“I guess. But, hey, you’ve never introduced me to any of your old Canterlot friends, either,” Lyra said with a wink and a smile.

“Well, that’s about to change,” Bon Bon said, stopping. “We’re here.”

On the train ride over, Bon Bon had, under some duress, admitted that one of her old agency contacts lived in the city, and that she had wanted to check in with them to see if they had turned up anything. She had suggested that Lyra go on ahead to the museum without her, to which Lyra had responded with a firm “No,” only in part because she wanted to meet somepony else who had been a part of the Agency.

Have I been here before? Lyra thought as she followed Bon Bon up the path to the little cottage, nestled between two shop fronts. I feel like I’ve been here before.

Bon Bon rapped on the door. “Coming,” said a muffled voice from inside. After a moment, it opened, just a little bit.

“Sweetie Drops?” the pony on the other side of the door said. She opened the door fully. “What are you doing here? And…” She blinked. “Lyra?”

“Moondancer?”

Bon Bon looked between them. “You two know each other?”

“You two know each other?” Moondancer echoed.

“You worked with Bon Bon?” Lyra said.

Moondancer looked over at Bon Bon.

“She knows?”

“She knows.”

“Then yes, I did,” Moondancer said. “Come in, before ponies start paying attention…”

The inside of Moondancer’s house was better off than the last time Lyra had been inside—as was, she realized, the outside, which was why she hadn’t recognized the place. There were still books strewn everywhere, of course, but at least they were in stacks instead of carefully-organized heaps.

“Geez, Lyra, I haven’t seen you since you dropped out of CSGU. You’ve been living in Ponyville, right?”

“Yeah. Bon Bon and I live together, actually,” Lyra said, moving aside so Moondancer could close the door. “So, you worked for the Agency?”

“I worked with the Agency,” Moondancer replied, slotting the door’s deadbolt into place. “I was never officially employed by them, but they appreciated my skills.”

“We did,” Bon Bon said. “You were our best analyst, bar none. Speaking of…”

“That list of names you sent me? I’m still working on them,” Moondancer said. “I’ve got a strong lead, though.”

“And that is…?”

“I’ll tell you if it’s right.”

“Right,” Bon Bon said. “Well, we’re going to be in Canterlot for a while; if you come up with anything, we’re staying at the castle.”

Moondancer’s bushy eyebrows rose. “The castle, huh? Are you back in the business?”

“Not exactly,” Bon Bon said.

“Let’s just say we’re doing someone a royal favor and leave it at that,” Lyra added.

“I see.” Moondancer pushed her glasses back up her muzzle. “And would that favor have anything to do with a certain museum of magical artifacts?”

“It might,” Bon Bon said. “Why, would you happen to have heard anything about a certain museum of magical artifacts?”

“Only what came down the grapevine, but I’ll inform you if I do,” she said.

“Speaking of museums,” Lyra said, “we should probably get going. It was nice seeing you, Moondancer. We should catch up some time!”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Moondancer said. “Should get the rest of the girls together, too. We could go to the donut shop or something.”

“I think Minnie’s rubbing off on you,” Lyra said with a wink.

Moondancer turned her head away. “Well, there are worse things…”

─────

The Canterlot Museum of the Magical Sciences was a grandiose building in the same way all the major buildings in Canterlot were: tall, swooping, and made from magically-fused seamless marble.

Also, like all the major buildings in Canterlot, it had far too many stairs.

“Finally,” Lyra said as she reached the top. She looked to the entrance, where a tourist family of four were being turned away by two members of the Royal Guard. “Sheesh. I’d hate to be them right now.”

Bon Bon was close behind. “I’ll never understand the Canterlotian fascination with stairs.”

“It’s a unicorn thing,” Lyra said. She walked over to the entrance. One of the guards stepped forward to block her path.

“I’m sorry, miss,” she said, “but the museum’s closed today. You’ll have to come back some other time.”

Lyra produced a sheet of paper from her saddlebag and handed it to the guard. The mare looked it over. She nodded. “My apologies, ma’am. And is she with you? Okay, right this way…”

The guard led them through the large wooden doors of the museum and into its foyer. It was a very tall entranceway, spanning two floors and perhaps three stories, with balconies on the second level. A geodesic pattern had been rendered in tile on the floor, and at its center stood a large, clockwork… thing.

Lyra wasn’t sure what it was. She wasn’t sure if anyone else was, either.

A mare stood next to the thing; she looked up at their approach. “Lieutenant, why are you bringing civilians into my crime scene?”

“Not civilians, ma’am,” their escort said.

“No?” The mare trotted up to them. She was tall, standing a head taller than Lyra, and she had a shiny silver badge stuck to her jacket. “Then you must be the two ‘specialists’ they told me were coming.”

“That’s us,” Lyra said.

Bon Bon stepped forward. “I assume you’re the pony in charge of the investigation, here?”

“Indeed.” She held out her hoof. “Trace. Special Investigations.”

“Sweetie Drops,” Bon Bon said, shaking her hoof. “And this is Harpo.”

The names had been Bon Bon’s idea. This was off-the-books government work, she’d said; the harder they were to trace afterwards, the better.

“So what are you two?” Trace asked, after she’d shaken Lyra’s hoof as well. “Department of Investigations? Internal Bureau?”

“That’s above your paygrade,” Bon Bon said. Trace’s eyes narrowed.

“I didn’t think there was anything above my paygrade,” she said. “I guess that’s the point.” She waved over the guard from earlier, who had been hanging around behind them. “Lieutenant, could you show these two to the Aisle? I need to get back to my team.”

“And what is your team working on?” Bon Bon asked.

“Tracking down the pony responsible, of course,” Trace replied.

“And that is?”

Trace smirked. “Above your paygrade, she said, and with that she turned around and walked off.

“So, it’s going to be like that,” Bon Bon muttered.

“Erm… shall we go, then?” the guard said.

Lyra nodded. The three off them began walking.

“My name is Pear Pommel,” their guide said. “Lieutenant, that is. They’ve put me in charge of security while they sort this whole mess out.”

“Trottingham Home Guard?” Bon Bon asked.

“Transferred to the Royals two months ago,” the Lieutenant said. “Am I that green-looking?”

“No, but you’re still pronouncing ‘lieutenant’ weirdly.”

“No, you’re the one pronouncing it wrong,” she said as she led them down one of the hallways. Glass cases sat along both walls, filled with all sorts of old books, artifacts, and who knew what else. “Who are you two, anyway?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lyra said. “We’re just two ponies here to help.”

“Well, whoever you are,” Pear Pommel said, “I hope you can speed things up a little. They told me we wouldn’t be here longer than a day; it’s been two now, and we’re all starting to get tired of door duty. It’s driving us all mental!”

“You’d better get used to it,” Bon Bon said. “That’s going to be most of your duties in the royals.”

She snorted. “That may be true, but at least Canterlot Castle isn’t haunted.”

They rounded another corner.

“Haunted?” Lyra asked.

“Oh, just a little joke, ma’am,” Pear Pommel said. “Some of the guards are saying they’ve seen things at night—things moving on their own, weird shadows, that sort of nonsense. I say it’s just the late hour playing tricks on them, but in a place like this, who knows?”

Bon Bon snorted. “I know,” she said. “Ghosts don’t exist. And believe me, I’d know if they did.”

Lyra wasn’t so sure about that, but she didn’t say anything.

The east wing was much like the entranceway: grand. A velveteen banner hung above its arched entranceway, reading ‘East Wing: Hall of History. “To know the future is to look to the past.” -Starswirl the Bearded’.

“I hate that quote,” Lyra said as they passed under it. “We had a history professor at CSGU who would say that almost every class. Especially right before tests.”

Pear Pommel smirked. “You too?”

“I think every history teacher does that,” Bon Bon said.

At Pear Pommel’s indication, they took a left past a pair of royal guards and found themselves before the entrance to the self-proclaimed Aisle of Arcane Artifacts.

The Lieutenant stopped by the entranceway. “Now, I’d best be off,” she said. “I’ve got a door waiting for me. Best of luck!”

The hallway itself was unremarkable; tile floors, wooden walls. The Aisle itself lay beyond a high arch, cut into the wall. Signs sat on either side of the entrance, pointing inwards.

But Lyra was looking at the two chunks of crystal that sat across from each other in the hall. Several unicorns surrounded them, taking notes or performing spellwork. From the side of one of the masses, poking out like a tumor, was the side of a stallion’s head. His one visible eye had rolled up into his skull.

“Thanks,” she muttered. “We might need it.”

Comments

[TheStratovarian]

Huh, an interesting way of hiding something in plain sight. And more so in a clever way since you never really interact with it. I like it.

[Nyperold]

“No, but you’re still pronouncing ‘lieutenant’ weirdly.”

I'm guessing the Trottingham transfer is saying "lef", while Bon Bon is saying "loo" or perhaps
"lyoo"?

[Darkest Dreams]

Hmmm. I will be honest. The Moondancer segment felt a little short and forced in to me. I feel like that could have been turned into more had they only introduced themselves after she found information. Maybe made the exchange longer than walking into her house and then leaving half a minute later. Although I still enjoy the chapter and I’m looking forward to this new layer of mystery.

[BlueMoonHarlot]

>>/8547933
I supposed wouldn't really want to do a 4-year bump reply, though I think the Moondancer scene actually worked out solidly. They're a bit of a, "Feelings? You know who has time for feelings? [...] Professionals have standards - be polite, be efficient," type of pony (with the exception of stories that give them enough events and screen time to develop more) that this, oh my distant long lost friendquaintance meeting being so to the point sits well with me.

Granted that's something about RB's writing I'm kind of appreciating - I think I read 2 or 3 shorter fics that took the time to go deeper into the dialogue and thoughts of characters at times, but if this story was that level of detail it could end up being some 2x-3x as long and take 4x-6x as long to write. There's a bit of a short dorkinessness to some of the chapters but its a good sort that doesn't overfluff and faff around too much with mediocre prose nor excessive descriptions of mundanity between moments.