//------------------------------// // Thrilling Days of Yesteryear 3 // Story: Truthseeker // by RB_ //------------------------------// “The tempearl?” Lyra said. “Yes,” Starswirl said. “It should be right here—look! Here’s the bottle I kept it in!” He levitated it out, a little glass bottle with a cork in the top, and a label affixed to the side. It was, Lyra observed, empty. Starswirl shook it for good measure. Lyra swallowed. “Then… maybe you just put it somewhere else?” But Starswirl shook his head. “I haven’t touched it today. And I know this was where it ought to be, it’s where I retrieved it from yesterday, when I summoned you!” “Maybe you’re remembering wrong?” Lyra suggested, with little conviction. “Impossible. I have a perfect memory, I’ve not forgotten a thing since I was a colt! It is my greatest asset. No, the tempearl should be here!” “But it isn’t,” Lyra said, “so—” “So someone must have taken it!” Starswirl cast his gaze on Lyra, his eyes narrowing. “Was it you?” he asked. “What? Of course not—why would I want it?” “Because you wished to return to your own time, perhaps?” Starswirl said. He took a step towards her; Lyra held her ground. “Or perhaps some other motive… I have no idea who you are. All I know of you is that you are an acquaintance of Ditzy Doo—and even that could easily be a falsehood!” “Well, I didn’t take it,” Lyra said. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t know what to do with it! I’m a musician, not a mage!” “Then you could be a thief,” Starswirl said. “Tempearls are rare, extremely so; they’d be worth a lot to the right ponies.” “I don’t know who the ‘right ponies’ are!” Lyra exclaimed. “I’ve only been here for a day!” “In your own time period, then!” “That’s ridiculous! You brought me here, remember!” “Taking advantage of the situation, then!” “For the last time,” Lyra said, almost shouting, “I didn’t take your tempearl!” “Then who did? You’re the only new variable introduced into the loop! There is no one else!” “I don’t know!” Lyra said, now shouting, “But it wasn’t—” Lyra? Lyra, are you there? “Not now, Winter Bell!” Starswirl had his mouth open like he was going to say something, but stopped. “’Winter Bell’?” he asked. “Friend from back home,” Lyra said. “…You are in contact with ponies from your own time?” Starswirl asked. “Maybe I am,” Lyra said. “Sorry, Bell. What’s up?” Bon Bon wanted me to check in with you, Winter Bell said. We just got to Appleoosa, and— “You’re in Appleoosa?” Lyra asked. Yeah, it’s a long story… so I guess the reset thingy didn’t bring you back, huh? “Doesn’t look like it. And things are just getting weirder by the minute… somepony tried to kill me this morning.” She paused for a second, then quickly appended: “Don’t tell Bon Bon that! She’ll worry!” Too late, Winter Bell said. There was a pause, during which Lyra noticed that Starswirl was observing her closely, taking down notes on a scrap of parchment. Hey, uh… okay, Bon Bon wants to talk to you. Lyra blinked. “Is… is that a thing you can do?” …Probably? Momma thinks so—it might be weird, though, without her to keep things apart. But it would be a straight connection between you and her, and she’d probably be fine with keeping the spell going longer. No offense, but I kinda like only having one voice in my head. “Yeah!” Lyra said. “That’d be, that’d be amazing!” Okay… here goes… Everything went silent. The only noises Lyra could hear were the sound of the wind rushing through the trees outside, and the sound of Starswirl’s quill scratching down notes. “Fascinating…” he murmured. “A means of communication across time… Either that or she’s mad, but who can tell with these future ponies…” Lyra glared at him; he showed no signs of caring. And then: Ly… Lyra? Lyra, can you hear me!? “Bonnie!” Lyra cried. “Oh man, you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice again…” I think I might, Bon Bon said. I think I might… Lyra was suddenly overcome by a torrent of emotion—relief, joy, anxiety—and then she became aware of something other. These weren’t her—they didn’t feel right. These were coming from the same place Bon Bon’s voice was, through the spell. “Bonnie,” Lyra said, “Do you feel that?” I do, she said. The filly said this might happen. It was an odd sensation—it reminded Lyra of cold nights spent snuggled up against Bon Bon, in a way. Listening to her heartbeat, pressing against her coat—being made somehow more whole by the inclusion of another. Even though they were thousands of years apart, to Lyra, it felt as if Bon Bon were standing by her side. A weight in Lyra’s stomach that she hadn’t known was there suddenly disappeared. “Are you… crying?” Lyra asked. No, Bon Bon said, a little too quickly. Lyra shivered; she’d felt it, both through her blessing and through the spell. She grinned. “You know you can’t lie to me, Bonnie.” Doesn’t mean I can’t try… and you’re crying too. “You can’t prove a thing,” Lyra said, wiping her eyes with her foreleg. ───── “Alright,” Starswirl said. “There must be a logical explanation for all that is transpiring here; to unearth it, we must simply think about it logically. Let us begin from the beginning.” They were still in the workshop, Starswirl pacing around in the center of the floor while Lyra sat off to the side. She’d spent the last several minutes catching her friends up on what had been happening. “I have been trapped in this time loop,” Starswirl said, “for some time now. I can outline the general movements of every pony in the village during the course of this loop; they do not vary except when acted upon by an outside force, which up until recently meant ‘me’. Does Ditzy Doo have any thoughts on this?” Lyra waited for a moment for Bon Bon to relay the question, then a moment more for the answer. “Ditzy says it sounds just like a normal minor loop,” Lyra said, repeating what Bon Bon was telling her. “Except that normally, when this kind of thing happens, the loop is… isolated? Isolated, from the rest of the timestream.” “Could you ask her to elaborate on that?” Starswirl asked. The loop gets cut off from the rest of time, Bon Bon told her. Nothing should be able to leave or enter it… which Ditzy says is weird, since both Starswirl’s scroll and you were able to do just that. She says it’s… fishy, but that she’s not sure what it could mean. Lyra repeated the information. Starswirl frowned, the lines on his face growing deeper. But a fire danced behind his aging eyes, something keen and angry. It’s like he’s mad at the world for not making sense, Lyra thought. What? Nothing. “Regardless of these irregularities,” Starswirl said, “The fact remains that time is regularly repeating itself. It is the only conceivable explanation for this phenomena. And it was regular, until I introduced a new variable into the system.” “Me,” Lyra said. “Precisely. Your arrival seems to have upset the whole equation—but why?” Starswirl’s pacing became more fevered. “You arrive, and suddenly ponies I’ve known for years become homicidal, and a valuable item disappears—seemingly with no explanation.” He stopped. “The simple explanation, of course,” he said, pointing at Lyra, “is that you simply fabricated the entire story about being attacked by the Innkeeper, and then stole the tempearl for yourself while I was out investigating your claims!” “This again?” Lyra said, frowning. “I told you, I didn’t take your tempearl! I didn’t even know where it was! I don’t even know what a tempearl looks like!” “Until you can provide proof of that,” Starswirl said, “then that explanation is still just as likely as any other.” I can provide proof that he’s an idiot,Bon Bon grumbled. Lyra could feel her rising irritation through the link. “However,” Starswirl continued, “I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for now, on the grounds that the Ditzy Doo that I know would not have associated with thieves, and on the grounds that I have no proof against your innocence either. Until either of these things emerges, we will investigate other possibilities—and it will be ‘we’. I won’t be giving you any opportunity to get away should my judgement of you prove incorrect.” “Fine,” Lyra said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, anyway.” “So,” Starswirl said, resuming tracing his path around the center of the room, “if we then assume that your account is wholly accurate, we must ask ourselves: why? What about you, specifically, has caused events to change?” He paused again. “There’s something special about you, isn’t there?” “How do you figure?” “Well, I can see no reason the mere presence of an ordinary unicorn would drive an otherwise sane innkeeper to murder,” Starswirl said. “Nor why it would drive somepony to steal a rare material from my possession. “And besides which,” he said, “you know Ditzy Doo, you hardly blinked at being sent thousands of years back in time, and for someone who was nearly murdered this morning, you are decidedly calm. No, there’s something odd about you, something you haven’t told me, and I’d be willing to put money down that it’s the key to this entire puzzle.” “Well, you’re right,” Lyra said. “There is something weird about me.” “And that is?” Starswirl said, leaning towards her and beckoning her to go on. “I have the blessing of the god of Truth,” Lyra said. Starswirl blinked. “A god’s blessing? Truly?” Lyra nodded. “I’m basically a living lie-proof lie-detector. You know about the gods?” “Of course, Starswirl said. “I’ve had to deal with their meddling before.” He broke into a smile. “Still, that is fascinating! You and I will have to talk about that when all this is over. I would love to hear your account, and perhaps get some readings…” Then, he sighed. “But it seems I was wrong; I see little in the way of connection between that fact and the events of this morning. Which means,” he said, whirling around and resuming his march, “that there is some other factor at play here, something neither of us is aware of. Do any of your friends have any thoughts?” I’ve got plenty of thoughts, Bon Bon said,but none of them helpful. Or good. Are you always like this in your own head? Lyra asked. …Not all the time… She was feeling sheepish, now. Lyra giggled softly to herself. Ditzy has nothing, she’s busy talking to somepony else right now… Winter Bell’s got nothing, either. “Nothing,” Lyra said. “But I’ve got a plan, if you’re up for it.” Oh no. Starswirl stopped pacing one last time. “I suspect it’s the same one I was about to propose, largely because it’s the only logical course of action I can see.” Please don’t say— “Does it involve going to to the village and trying to get it to happen again?” Lyra asked, grinning. “Indeed it does,” Starswirl said, also smiling. “Perhaps there is hope for you after all.”