The sheriff threw down his hat with a scowl. "Jus' don' get it! Look." He turned his head to face Time Turner behind his counter. "They're doin' everythin' they can, and it's not normally any of mah business, but the apples are everypony's business. They fall through, the town's done."
Time held up his hooves, balancing on his back legs. "Calm down, I want to help, but explain what is happening to the apples? I can't argue the results." His eyes turned to a sad and withered apple that sat on his counter. While it was as red as an apple should be, it was shriveled and limp.
The sheriff picked up his hat from where he had thrown it and put it back on his head. "You see 'bout as much as ah know about it. We done watered 'em, fertilized 'em... Some have even tried bedtime stories! The trees look fine, but the apples--" He thrust a hoof violently at the shriveled fruit. "--speak fer themselves. Yer a right clever pony, can ya do somethin' about it?"
Time Turner fell back to four hooves and paced back and forth. "My specialities lie more within mechanics, chemistry, perhaps a little electrical work..." He licked over his lips as he watched the sheriff just get surlier looking. "But... I'll take a look." He gently poked the apple and it fell over like a deflated balloon. "I can see this is quite serious."
The frown turned to a hopeful smile. "That's all we kin ask, Doctor."
Turner blushed softly. He hadn't advertised that fact, and yet... "Please, just Time Turner, or Turner, if you prefer." A thought struck him. "As much as I want to assist, my recent move has depleted my reserve of bits quite severely. I'm afraid I do have to insist on some bit of consultation fee."
"Honest work, honest pay." Silverstar nodded firmly. "Won't be hard to get the farmers to chip in, if you can at least figure out what's goin' on, more so if'n ya actually fix it! Please, give it yer best."
Turner came around the counter, or started to, hesitating just at the end. "Let me get my supplies." He turned towards the back. "I'll give it a proper examination before I can properly discern what the malady could be."
"You do yer thing, Do--Turner. We're countin' on ya." Silverstar pulled his hat down across his chest. "Keep me updated, alright?" With that, he departed, both ponies going in opposite directions with him leaving the store and Turner heading into the back.
Lyra plinked at her instrument softly, held in her magic. She was seated in Bon Bon's candy shoppe. Bon Bon was behind the counter, looking cross. "You do realize that was pretty tactless," taunted Lyra with a little smile.
Bon Bon scowled at Lyra. "What do you mean?" Each syllable was tense with accusation, her hooves pressing firmly against her counter.
"If you want answers out of the Derpster, you're going about it the wrong way, but nice save at the end." She punctuated her last statement with a soft plink on her instrument. "Did you find anything?"
Bon Bon sagged. "Not a thing... Look, this is no joking matter! S.M.I.L.E. expects results, yesterday!"
Lyra waved off the hysteria. "I was at the same briefing, you don't have to remind me. I don't see what the big fuss is about, anyway."
Bon Bon slipped down to all fours and trotted around to Lyra with a purpose, her eyes locked on her carefree roomie and partner. "Big fuss? Big. Fuss?! This is an unknown species. Is it a monster? Some strange foreign invasion force? Who knows, and we need--" She prodded Lyra right in the chest as she arrived. "--to know! That is literally our job. It's what our name stands for." She threw her hooves up with an annoyed grunt. "Do I need to remind you?"
"No."
Despite that, Bon Bon went forward. "Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria! We have a monster, and we don't know a thing about it. That's a dereliction of duty."
Lyra sat up and reached, putting a hoof on either of Bon Bon's shoulders. "Calm down. We'll find them. Look, whatever it is, it hasn't hurt anypony, so why get bent out of shape about it?"
Bon Bon swatted one of the hooves away. "So we wait until after it hurts, or worse, some random person, then we care? How is that responsible?"
Lyra's ears shrank as she pulled her other hoof back. "I... guess you have half a point there. Alright, what clues do we have right now?"
Bon Bon settled onto her haunches with a forceful huff of a sigh. "Derpy "Muffins" Hooves saw it. It frightened her and she came running to me to talk about it."
Lyra's brows waggled. "And she didn't even know what you were."
"No, and she still doesn't. Anyway. I reported the sighting, and we received the briefing you already know about."
Lyra rolled her eyes and a hoof at once. "Right right. Locate, document, intervene if needed. I remember."
"That is our basic duty." Bon Bon stood up tall. "You accepted that. You're not turning away from it now, are you?"
Lyra quickly put up her hooves. "No! No, seriously, Bonnie, I'm on your side. We'll figure this out. So, besides that?"
"Besides..." Her brows went up as one. "Ah, yes, we know it has only patches of fur. Male, or so Miss Hooves assumed, but she's hardly a qualified--"
"--It doesn't take a doctor to know a stallion from a mare." Lyra's brows waggled salaciously. "I'll take her word for it if she thinks it's a guy."
Bon Bon rolled her eyes mightily, her head turning up with the force of it. "Yes, fine, we can assume she got that right. It has fingers, no claws, and large feet in comparison to the rest of its body. Bipedal." She stuck out her tongue with a disgusted noise. "Unsettling, isn't it?"
Lyra tapped at her chin, trying to imagine the described beat. "Just fleshy nubs with no claws? Huge feet? Kinda weird, all ambling about... Anyway, alright, so how hard can it be to spot tracks from something with big feet?"
"You would think that, but I haven't seen any hints." She let out a slow breath. "And! And! Derpy's clammed up. She won't talk to me about it. I think the poor thing's gone into some kind of emotional shock."
"Shock?" Lyra hiked a brow. "From seeing it?"
"That, but more than that." She rolled a hoof. "You know she has a special somepony, or did, right?"
"Did?" Lyra's face turned to a frown as she sat up. "What do you mean? Did something happen to Time Turner? They're an adorable pair!"
"I haven't seen him, and that's just it." Bon Bon crossed her hooves. "He may have been foalnapped, or hurt, or worse by this unknown monster, and I think she's fallen apart, imploded. She won't talk about it at all. He could be being held hostage by it right this very moment, and she won't say a word." She slammed a hoof on the ground with a frustrated cry. "And I can't just out and force her."
Lyra nodded slowly. "That's heavy... Mmm, have you tried just following her around? Maybe she does something funny?"
"Do I look that inept?" Bon Bon tapped her friend on the forehead. "First thing I started to do, but all she does is go to work, come home, look pouty, repeat. It's really obvious she's upset about something."
"And you're trying to find out by force." Lyra smiled in a quirk. "And she just closes off more and more. Bonnie, you have to treat her like a hurt mare, for Celestia's sake. Poor thing lost her special somepony, who wouldn't be a mess? We don't even know what happened there. It might not even be related at all. I mean, he could be on some amazing vacation and she's just missing him." She set her instrument down, and it popped out of existence with the wet burst of a poked soap bubble. "After we figure this out, you need one of those."
"One of what? A vacation?!" Bon Bon leaned her head in close. "I've been basically on vacation for years. It's time we both earned our pay. On your hooves, missy, we have investigating to do."
"Aye aye." Lyra hopped up to her hooves and saluted sharply before they both trotted out of the store.
Turner strode out, looking left and right as the scent of apples tickled at his nose. The smell wasn't quite right. Sure, it smelled like apples, but they were not... right... He snorted as if to clear his sinuses, to reset the signal, but the apples still smelled strange in some way he couldn't readily identify. "How curious..."
"Ayup."
Turned turned to see one of the former Bearers standing there. One Applejack. "Oh, hello there, miss. Good day to you."
"Howdy." She tipped her hat. "Heard mah kin was havin' a mighty bit ah trouble and ah came runnin' ta lend a hoof. You don't... Hey, I've seen you before. Turner was it?"
Turner smiled sheepishly. "Sure is. Applejack, of the Apples, correct?"
She thrusted forward a hoof with a big smile. "Sure as rain. Nice to meetcha proper-like. What brings ya all the way out here? Did they make you come all the way from Ponyville fer this?"
He met the hoof with a less violent motion, but the moment his hoof touched hers, she shook the two up and down vigorously.
"Mighty kind of ya to go out of yer way like that. See anything that could be doin' it?"
Turner fell back, his leg aching a little from the energetic hoofshake. "Oh! Not yet, miss. I've just gotten here. Do you know what that strange scent is?"
Applejack sniffed at the air in a mighty snort of air. "Sick apples." She sniffed again. "Trees smell fine, fruit's gone bad. This is already a Grade A disaster. They're gonna lose a huge portion of tha harvest, but we haveta stop it from spreadin'."
Turner smiled brightly. A clue. "Do you know where the sickness seems to end? There may be a clue where the healthy apples end and the sick ones begin."
"Good thinkin', pardner. Let's go." She turned in place and began a purposeful trot through the trees. "Now, I expect someone like yerself don't see much but lots of apples, but there's more to it than just that. Each tree is its own story, and that's a story we learn, to farm right."
Turner nodded as he followed along, not paying too much attention to the wistful thoughts of a farmer on the art of farming. His eyes were skywards, looking at the apples as they went. The further they proceeded, the less shriveled they seemed to become, until they finally reached full-bodied apples. He could still smell that odd scent, but it clearly came from the direction of the sickly apples. "Pardon me..." He deviated away from her and started tracing along the path where the apples began to decline, muttering to himself as he went, "at this rate of decay..."
Applejack came right up alongside him. "Got a clue?" But he put up a silencing hoof. "Right..." She went quiet, but kept following him. Her own eyes wandered the trees, but her thoughts she kept to herself.
"With the diameter of the unaffected area..." Turner made a quick scribble in a notebook with a pen he held in his mouth. "Is this the only unaffected area?" Applejack quickly nodded. "I see..." He continued following the dividing line, and began to frown. "It's not a circle, I see..." That made sense, to him. His serious expression began to lift. "I think I know where to start looking."
Applejack swatted him on the shoulder. "They picked a good pony fer the job. Jus' point the way and we'll get this taken care of!"