//------------------------------//
// The Lack of Straight Answers 
// Story: A Mystery Older Than Celestia Herself 
// by Crazy Pizzafan927 
//------------------------------//

Derpy quickly darted through the morning air, without giving herself a chance to enjoy the cool breeze blowing at her face. She glanced down at Time Turner, who was trotting right below her. 

"Hurry up, Time Turner! You're goin' to be late!"

Time Turner stared up at Derpy. "If  I’m  the one who's going to be late, why are you  the one who's flying away so quickly?" He dodged a purple unicorn before looking up at Derpy again. "And also, it's not as if I have the ability to fly! Although, I would appreciate it if I do. It'd be very useful for testing theories and such. And maybe I could even have a chance of beating Rainbow Dash in a race!" He placed a hoof under his chin and ducked his head, still managing to run. "Never mind. That would be near impossible. Not impossible, but near impossible. But . . ." He continued rambling, surprisingly managing to avoid the different obstacles that he swore were out to get him.

After a few more minutes of speeding away (Time Turner had finally finished his rambling by now), they had arrived in front of a house that was near identical to the other buildings in Ponyville, if it weren't for its grey, bricked walls and light purple roof. Although Time Turner isn't a critic or a house designer, he couldn't help but think that the house was very plain. Now if it were blue or took a hundred years to finish, that might be worth having a look at. He blinked a few times before realizing that Derpy was already in the front doorway, shouting at him. Pushing away anymore critiques from his mind, he trotted into the doorway, knocking something over in the process.

"Time Turner!" 

Never mind. Make that somepony. 

Shouting an apology, Time Turner stood up and got off Derpy's back. He scanned the interior, which he expected to be just as bland as the exterior. This was why he was surprised to see balloons and streamers of every imaginable colour, scattered across the carpeted floor and taped against the grey walls. Raising an eyebrow at the decorations, he turned to ask Derpy about this, but said pegasus had disappeared. 

"How odd," Time Turner muttered to himself. He allowed himself to smile. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to take a look around this house. After all, it isn't everyday when one gets invited into a stranger’s house."

With one quick glance around the room, he snuck his way into the nearest open door. Poking his head in, he caught a glance of grey, which tempted him to turn away. Grey, grey, grey, can't this house have more colours in it? Sneaking into the room, he scanned the room for anything that was worth his time. And there on a grey wall, he saw something taped on it. Walking towards it, he dropped his jaw when he saw a photograph. It contained two foals; one was a colt balancing a ball on his muzzle and doing a headstand, and the other one was a filly flying nearby. It was unspectacular, but what made his heart beat faster was that the colt looked like him, and the filly looked like the mare who invited him over. But how can this be? He'd only met the mare just a week ago. Or was it years ago? Slowly shaking his head, he backed away from the picture as if it were a bomb waiting for the right moment to explode. Turning around to exit the room, he'd found himself face-to-face with Derpy.

Derpy placed her hooves on her hips. "Time Turner, where were you? I thought I told you to wait back there!"

Time Turner gave her a blank stare. "Actually, you yelled my name, then disappeared." Giving a glance at the photograph, he pointed a hoof at it. "Care to explain the meaning of that?"

Derpy flitted over to the picture and stared at it for a while. Time Turner turned around and stared at her, blue eyes unblinking. Although he was sincerely curious, he was struggling to fight the urge to go and explore this place. After all, there were many things that required some proper explanations and exploration, and he didn't have all day to wait. After all, it wasn't like he could control time or do anything of the sort.

"That would be interesting if I could," said Time Turner with an unfocused stare. Controlling time would be very useful indeed.

Derpy broke away from her staring contest with the photo and looked at Time Turner. "What?"

"Nothing!" he quickly blurted, waving a hoof. 

"Okay?" 

Derpy was about to glance down at the photo again, but Time Turner tugged at her tail. Ignoring the glare that Derpy was now giving him, Time Turner asked his question.

"Now, Derpy. Will you please explain why I am, or rather younger me, in that picture? I swear I've never seen you before, unless you counted last week or possibly some years ago."

Derpy lowered her head and sighed. "Time Turner, you met me when we were just fillies."

Time Turner raised an eyebrow, smirking. "I was a girl?"

"No!" She shook her head. On normal circumstances that would've made her smile, but this wasn't what she needed. "Argh! You know what I mean! Honestly, we're friends! Best friends!"

"You still didn't answer my question. And also, how could I be friends with you. Not to be rude, but I don't even know you that much. Once again, we've just met-"

"Please don't repeat that sentence, Time Turner!" Derpy turned away from him. "Just please, don't."

Time Turner walked towards Derpy and stood there. Although he didn't know her all that much, he really wanted to comfort her in some sort of way, ideally a hug. But if he hugged her, that would be very awkward, and he hated awkwardness. But in this case, he could make an exception. Of course, he could've just stood there like a fool or run away, but the former choice would also be awkward, and the latter was just plain rude. 

There isn't an easy way out of this dilemma, is there? 

He looked at Derpy. Reaching out a foreleg, he was about to give her a hug when something had landed splat! on his back. Feeling something cold and wet trickle down towards his side, he shook his entire body, spraying water droplets and torn balloon pieces all over the walls. Then he turned around to see the culprit, who turned out to be that mare whom he remembered was named Lyra. 

Lyra screamed something that Time Turner couldn't understand; it sounded like a string of gibberish, if you asked him.

But unfortunately, he'd forgotten her lack of understanding of lowering volumes. He'd never be able to forget the pounding in his eardrums after he'd received her reaction after that prank of his, last April Foal's Day. Oh the painful nostalgia . . .

Seeing Bon Bon walk in through the door, Time Turner decided that it was safe to take his hooves off his ears. 

"Lyra, I thought I told you to use your indoor when we're indoors." Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "Must I scold you like I'm your own mother?" 

Pointing at Time Turner, Lyra was about to continue when Bon Bon cut her off.

"And also, why did you throw that water balloon? I told you, to bring butter macaroons for crying out loud!"

"Forget that, Bon Bon. The macaroons aren't that important." Lyra threw her forelegs towards Time Turner's direction. 

Lyra looked like she was about to say something, but she was cut off by a flash of blue-white light that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, swirling in a vortex that looked like the eye of a hurricane. 

Time Turner gazed into the vortex, catching images of Equestria's past in it (although he'd never been heavily educated in history, he had a feeling that it was the past). Wars, armoured creatures he'd never seen before, it was all fascinating. The longer he stared into the vortex, the more the images became sharper and colourful. 

Soon, the vortex swallowed the entire room and disappeared as quickly as it came. 

Feeling the sense of zero gravity, images blurred before Time Turner's eyes. The images should've been blinding him at the speed they were swirling by, but he couldn't help but be hypnotized by them. Soon his eyelids shut and he fell asleep, but not before feeling his whole body growing cold and numb.