Silent Ponyville: Reunion
Gloomy View.
Part 4
------
By the time he saw the outlines of buildings in the fog, the path beyond the sign had gone on for so long that Lance was half convinced the first thing he would see was the back of the same blasted sign. The only thing in his way now was a fairly wide stream with a current that seemed unusually strong, and a stone abutment on each end covered with years of moss. He scrutinized the fog above. His first impulse was to just fly over to other side of the stream, but after the difficulties he had endured at the wall the fog gave him pause. But then again, he had actually flown up into it back there. If he just flew beneath it he would probably get to the other side just fine...right?
...
"Oh buck it." He muttered as he unfolded his wings and took to the air. There was little sense in giving it too much thought since the worst that could happen was just ending up on the same side again...or somehow falling into the water below and getting soaked. True, it would only make him colder, but the last thing he needed right now was another irritant in the midst of all this insanity.
All four of his hooves soon landed on the opposite shore, and a quick glance up confirmed the buildings were still on the same side. Things had proceeded in a smooth, logical manner for the first time since he had woken up. Part of him wanted to take it as a sign of his luck improving but he really knew better than to let his hopes triumph over his experience like that.
Returning his mind to the present, he began thinking of what to do now that he and his broken watch had at last made it to town. His first instinct had been to find somepony else and find out what the devil was going on but as he kept moving further into town the buildings seemed every bit as dilapidated, boarded up, and abandoned as the library had been. There was nary a peep of sound, and he noticed that even the odd sounds he had been hearing all the way here had ceased to stalk him. Nopony was there...either that or they were doing an exceptional job of hiding. Except for those two he had heard chatting behind the wall that is.
They had been heading toward the hospital, so perhaps that would be a good first destination. Where was the hospital though? He'd gotten a fly over view when he and that Rainbow Dash mare had first arrived but no building had screamed 'THIS IS A HOSPITAL' to him, and he was a pony who knew his hospitals. Now that he thought of it, where was anything in this town? He had never so much as visited due to his daughter having chosen it as her new home. He needed to run into either a Ponyville resident familiar with the area or a map, and given how much the place resembled a ghost town a map was the more likely of the two, but he had no idea where he'd find one of those either.
Lance had little other choice than to choose a direction and check each of the houses, so he turned to his left and headed down the street. It sounded like a long, laborious task in his head at first but as he passed by boarded up door after boarded up door he realized it wouldn't be quite the plodding chore he thought it would be. This proved to have quite the downside though, as with each inaccessible house the chances of finding any clues pertaining to...well...anything felt like they were slipping further and further away.
"Helloooooo! Is anypony there?!" He called out in frustration after passing yet another inaccessible house. Once again, nopony answered. Either there was nopony there...or there was something out in the fog worth leaving him at the mercy of in order to remain hidden. Neither one was very pleasant to think about but he hoped it was the former and not the latter, because if there was something out here he had probably just practically invited it over.
Lance decided to keep moving instead of thinking about it anymore. There would be time to think later, right now he needed to act, no matter how increasingly futile it was feeling.
Boarded up door...boarded up door...boarded up door...boarded up doo-
Wait.
Lance stopped in his tracks and gave another look to the house he had just passed. The L shaped layout actually looked familiar. Yes...yes now he remembered, it was a house near the library. If he recalled correctly he could just turn left around the corner, pass one more house, cross the road, and that would take him straight to the library. That seemed a likely place to find a map, perhaps not the most likely place, but he hadn't a clue where much anything else was in this town.
He rounded the corner.
But then...hadn't he just woken up in the library? No no no, that place filled with cages couldn't have possibly been the library, no matter how similar it was.
He passed the house...
Besides, even though the buildings here were decrepit they all looked to be in roughly the same place as before he'd woken up. There was little reason to doubt the original library wouldn't still be in the same place...was there?
He crossed the road...
The grass that he knew surrounded the library was still there, it was patchy and dead, but it was still there. Everything was different but still in the same place. Surely it would only be a few more steps before he was standing in front of the...of the...
...
"I...guess it...was the...library." He admitted as he sat down dumbfounded. It was an absurd admission to make. Buildings didn't just relocate themselves on a whim. Perhaps with some applied ingenuity of engineering it would be possible for a coordinated group of ponies to relocate the entire library in one piece...but why would they bother? Furthermore why move it out to the very edge of some ponderous fog filled canyon and then do nothing with the freed up space in town? As logical as it wasn't...it had happened. He found it rather impossible to argue otherwise while looking down into the library sized crater in front of him.
"Okay...okay, what now?" Lance asked himself after shaking the befuddlement out of his head. It was the upper room of the library all over again, except now he'd much rather search one dark room for a key than have to wander around at random looking for Celestia knows what in a town full of boarded up houses and fog. As though that weren't an already daunting enough task he also had to do it knowing full well that whatever had broken through the wall was out there...somewhere. He didn't know what it was but he knew he didn't want to run into it. Prodding about with his hooves in the metaphorical dark all over town wouldn't serve that purpose very well at all, he had to think of another way.
It was fortunate that no idea immediately sprang to mind to keep his brain busy, because it gave him a moment to see instead of think. What he saw was at the bottom of the crater, similarly colored to the dirt it was half buried in but far too rigid in shape to be just another random rock or dirt clod. Having a grand dearth of other options he flew down to take a closer look.
It was a crudely constructed wooden box that looked to have been lying buried beneath the library. He could see rusty hinges on one side so it was clearly meant to open from the top, but was prevented from doing so by a pair of sturdy looking wires that were wrapped tightly around it. His curiosity piqued, he spent a moment digging the dirt out from around the box until he was able to pull it free. Something was rattling around inside, which only egged him on to find out how to open it all the more. To his disappointment the wires went around in one circular segment instead of having two ends meet and twist together. Had that been the case he might have been able to untwist them and open the box, but as it was he couldn't see himself getting access without something to cut the wires with.
That was another odd thing about it. It looked to have been buried, for quite some time in fact. Lance would think the wood it was made of would have rotted away by now, or at least be brittle enough from rot to break open. But as he held it in his hooves and turned it this way and that while looking it over it felt solid as a rock. He even went so far as to set it on the dirt and give it a few solid strikes with his hooves only to see he wasn't even making a mark on it. There was no way he was breaking it open.
Still, he was a doctor, not a carpenter. As peculiar as such resilient wood seemed to him, it was entirely possible it was just exceptional wood from some exotic tree of which he'd never heard. Moving on.
It would be impractical to bring the box with him at the moment so for now he buried it back in the dirt, figuring that if anypony else had wanted it they would've taken it far before he found it. Now he needed to go find something to cut the wires with. He was still confused about...well...everything, but it felt good to have a specific objective in mind again. With a push of his legs and a flap of his wings he flew back to the edge of the crater ready to begin the search...
Until he was immediately distracted by the shape of a pony that turned and galloped away into the fog upon seeing him.
"H-hey wait! Come back!" He galloped after the sound of the retreating hoof falls on the cobblestone. Had that been one of the ponies he'd heard at the wall? No matter, it was a pony, and he needed a great many things about this place explained, "I'm not going to hurt you! I just want to ask some questions!"
His assurances did little to dissuade the mysterious retreating pony from quickly leaving him behind. Either this pony was a champion sprinter or Lance just wasn't as fast as he remembered being. While it was true that he could probably fly low to the ground faster than he could ever run, he doubted it would make enough of a difference after losing so much ground, and the thought of getting lost again now that he had some smattering of a clue where he was made him hesitate all the more. He was left standing in the street panting to get his breath back as the hoof steps grew further and further away until they finally ceased entirely with a lingering echo. The pony was gone.
He stared off into the fog after it for a while before giving a final sigh and turning to leave, head hanging low at having lost the only other soul he'd seen in this entire place. But before he could get on his way his downturned gaze had an unexpected benefit. There was a trail of small dark red spatters on the ground following the path the pony had taken. Lance furrowed his brow as he began to worry on top of everything else. That was blood, no denying it. Had that pony been bleeding? It didn't look too bad judging from how little of it there was but it still suggested somepony in need of medical attention.
In any case his own lack of agility and the possibility of getting lost again were not going to be an issue any longer, and he immediately set to following the small trail deeper into town. He kept an eye out for any unboarded doors as he went but the bulk of his attention was spent just trying not to lose the trail. The individual spots of blood were tiny and spaced apart enough that the extra scrutiny was necessary. He was lead down the street past a well, around the corner, up the adjacent street, then to his right and along that street before passing beneath an arch that served as an entrance of sorts to a much more wide open area. There was a dead tree to his left, and further off just short of disappearing into the fog he could see two pairs of faded, torn banners flanking a fountain statue that had likely at one time resembled a pony. Now the head was missing, as were the two front legs, and what was left remaining was covered in cracks, chips, and moss. This could only be the town square, as he remembered seeing just one fountain in the entire town when he'd flown in.
Lance's ear twitched and he snapped his view straight ahead. The fog had been blessedly silent ever since he'd made it to the town proper, so it was a bit jarring to suddenly hear the steady breathing of a mare. The blood spatter trail was leading him straight toward the source. Had he caught up already?
"Um...are...are you hurt?" He asked as he advanced slowly, passing between the fountain and the banners on its left. She didn't seem to react at all to his question, "Listen, I'm a doctor, if you're hurt I can help. I don't have any bandages or anything but I'm sure we could find some if we just look together."
Still nothing. Lance took a few more steps forward and suddenly the steady breathing ceased entirely. There were no hoof steps of her running away either. Had she just stopped breathing? Now fearing the injury was worse than he thought, he quickly closed the remaining distance. The trail ended at a bulletin board in front of the pavilion, no pony in sight, and no more trailing blood spatters to follow. There was no way she could have moved away so quickly and been so quiet...it was like she had just up and vanished into thin air...
Was the fog just playing tricks on him again? But he'd actually seen what had been making the sounds this time...hadn't he?
"Where'd you go?! Come back! I'm not going to hurt you!" He shouted in no particular direction, casting his eyes around the surrounding fog to see if he could spot anything. After a pause he sighed and brought a hoof to his forehead, "Yeah, Lance, she just went through all that effort to get away but she's totally going to come back just because you said it was okay a third time."
He put her out of his mind for now. She might have lost a bit of blood but she was obviously feeling chipper enough to silently teleport at will. What now? A glance at the boards all over the pavilion's doors and windows made it quickly apparent he wouldn't be getting into that building either. The bulletin board...what was on the bulletin board?
...
He'd seen many a heart warming sight in his career, but at that time it seemed like it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
The map tacked to the board was in pristine condition in defiance of everything else he'd come across since waking up. Well...pristine aside from the bloody hoof print in the lower right quarter of the map. He grimaced as he noticed it. Perhaps that mare had been real after all? At the center of the hoof print was a building not far from the town square marked 'Ponyville Cafe'. That's not where he was headed though, so he disregarded it as a mere curiosity. The destination he sought was a ways north and just a smidge-o-meter west, where a building only a bit larger than most of the others was designated 'Ponyville Hospital'.
"That tiny thing is a hospital?" He thought aloud incredulously. Then again, Ponyville was quite a small town compared to the metropolis that was Cloudsdale, he supposed it made sense their facilities wouldn't need to be as large.
Now the only question left before he went on his way was whether to take the map with him or not. Would anypony else need it?
...
Was anypony else even actually there at all?
"No no no....no." Lance said as he forced the thought from his mind. He wasn't crazy. He knew what he'd heard and what he'd seen. Something strange was definitely going on, but there were certainly other ponies here, odd as they had thus far behaved. But would they need the map or not?
Come to think of it they probably wouldn't. They were all Ponyville residents and, unlike him, they already knew how to get around. His was by far the more pressing need. With his mind made up he pulled out the four push pins holding the map to the bulletin board and soon had it on the ground in front of him. He took a moment to look it over and get his bearings straight before folding it up and...
...alright now just where was he supposed to put this thing?
Between having to leave the box buried in the crater where the library had once been and now having to hold a folded up map in his teeth, the lack of any storage space was definitely becoming an issue. He still wanted something that could cut that box open first and foremost, but he'd be keeping an eye out for a bag of some sort too. In the meantime he'd just have to hope he wouldn't run into anything else he'd want to take with him as he set off for the hospital. According to the map it wouldn't be that difficult of a trip, all he had to do was head down the street between the ice cream shop and the book store then stay on it until he saw the hospital on his left. Of course...the sign pointing him into town had made that trip look just as simple at the time, so he reined in his enthusiasm as he walked around the pavilion then crossed the square.
Apparently his aim had been a little off. Instead of seeing either the ice cream shop or the book store, the first building to greet him was the collapsed remnant of the spa. Curious, everything up until now had looked to be sturdy, if neglected. As he started moving to his right toward the street he sought, he saw the joke shop, the ice cream shop, and finally the bookstore, each of them now a pile of wreckage barely recognizable as the buildings they had once been. He didn't have long to wonder how they had come to be that way though. It only took five steps toward the gap between the ice cream shop and book store before a familiar cobblestone wall loomed into view.
"Oh not this again!" It was strange how accustomed he was becoming to talking to himself.
The wall ran right through each of the businesses as though it had been built elsewhere and then rammed through each of them when it was somehow put in place. Just as before Lance couldn't see the top of the wall through the fog above either. He glared death up at the fog before letting out a growling sigh and walking over to one of the ruined buildings. After finding two suitably sized splintered wood planks he arranged them in a reasonably unique V shape then flew over the wall only to land right next to the same V shape on the same side.
"What a surprise. Why did I even bother with that?" He grumbled through the map in his mouth before taking a seat and unfolding it, "Okay...the direct route is no good then..."
He pored over the map looking for any other routes to the hospital but soon realized the futility of it. Lance had no earthly clue how far that wall went. For all he knew the segment cutting through the shops was just another part of the same wall that had stopped him before he'd made it into town. Though he knew he could probably just walk alongside it to find out for sure that would mean staying outside for a great deal of time longer. He wanted to avoid that. Was that just his nerves bringing down his better judgement though? Knowing how far the wall went would probably be very helpful...
His head darted upward away from the map as he heard something else in the distance, clear on the other side of the town square.
A hissing of steam. A groaning of metal. Then something that gave a sickening crack as it slammed into something else.
He instantly concluded that his better judgement was fine, and it was telling him to get the hay off the streets now.
Lance could actually feel his heart beating faster in his chest as he looked down at the map again, eyes instantly drawn the bloody hoof print centered around the cafe. He didn't have to think about it long before he refolded the map and stood. That mare had lead him to the map in the first place, maybe it was a good idea to take her advice again.
"We'll do it your way." He muttered under his breath as he quietly made his way around the pavilion and then back into the more densely constructed part of town, all in an effort to circle around the spot from which he'd heard that dreadful sound coming. He passed by another few boarded up houses before seeing the Sugar Cube Corner bakery on his right. The cafe was just two streets north of him now. His body grew more tense with every step as his need to remain quiet fought tooth and hoof with the urge to just gallop the distance and be done with it. There was no telling if the cafe would even offer any shelter in the first place so there was little sense calling attention to himself.
Two streets later and he had finally made it, but even in his anxious state he had to stop and stare upon seeing it. The building had no business being in Ponyville. While the rest of the buildings were quaint and lent themselves rather well to the town's rural countryside setting, this one stood out like a sore thumb with its well designed but comparatively blunt brick and mortar construction. It looked more akin to something one would see in the middle of a large city. There wasn't even a sign declaring it as the cafe he was looking for. That was as far as his thoughts went regarding how peculiar a building it was though, for they were interrupted by his spotting the door. It wasn't boarded up like the windows were.
Much to his delight he found it unlocked after cantering over past the railing of the outdoor dining area. He was all too happy to leave the fog outside and close the door behind him with a quiet click.
The inside of the cafe was about as dark as the ground floor of the library had been. He would certainly welcome more light but if this was all he could get it would be just enough to look around with. It wasn't a very large place anyway. Booths were lined up back to back along the windows, there was a bar opposite to him, and a look around the corner revealed further dining space with tables to go with more booths. The general decor made it look like one of those family unfriendly establishments that served drinks after a certain hour, or at least as far as he could tell. There was dust everywhere, a few broken glasses on the floor he'd make sure to avoid, and even a plate or two on some of the tables, one of which even still had the dried, rotted husk of what looked to have at one point been a daisy sandwich. The place wasn't just as dimly lit as the library had been, it was also just as abandoned.
But what was so special about it that the mare had bothered, while bleeding from some unknown wound, to mark it on the map for him? Whatever it was, he wasn't going to find it just standing there.
A ways to the left of the bar was door with a note tacked to it that said 'Restrooms'. Considering the condition of the rest of the building he was hesitant to go through it without exhausting his other options first. He took a look in the extended dining area next and found two more doors. One lead outside into the railed in dining area out front but was boarded up, and he assumed the other lead into the kitchen, but if that was true it was a strange door indeed. It looked normal enough at first glance, but kitchens usually had double swinging impact doors so somepony could nudge them open while carrying a tray of food. This one was just another solid oak door with knob and everything, but it was surrounded by an obviously hastily made section of concrete wall. It looked like somepony had ripped out the usual double doors and replaced them with this one as quickly and haphazardly as possible.
This door was locked, but it was probably for the best. There were no windows leading back into the kitchen so it was probably pitch black in there. Unfortunately that left him with no other choice but to check if the restroom door was unlocked. He rounded the corner back into the bar area with a grumble but was stopped before he could reach the door in question. There was a note on the bar, covered with enough dust to make reading it in that light impossible. Lance picked it up then shook the dust off, coughing a few times in response to the cloud it kicked up. The penmanship was very...casual...to put it kindly. Even without the dust he had to take it over to one of the windows where the lighting was a bit more reading friendly.
Eiffel,
I can't really fault you for trying to help out another pony, but the next time somepony needs to stash something here for safe keeping be sure to talk to me first instead of just cramming it all into the store room upstairs. The bulb burned out in there to boot, and I'm too old to be going around climbing all over that stuff from the boutique while trying to replace it. You got us into this mess so I'm leaving it up to you to fix it, but I did leave the lantern upstairs for you. Tell the nice filly from next door they owe us one.
"Hrm...a lantern would be nice right about now." He said while pondering how dark it must be further into the building. Maybe the lantern was still there? Unlikely...but still worth a look. Where were there any stairs though? There was only one place left to check.
The back room behind the unlocked door with the 'restrooms' note only proved his need for a light source all the more. Were it not for the open door letting in a scant few beams of light from the window it would be impossible to see anything at all in there. Lance was able to squint and make out the expected pair of doors for the stallion's and mare's rooms across from him, and to his right there was a set of stairs that would no doubt take him to the store room mentioned in the note. The bit of light let in by the door wouldn't be of any help to him if he chose to climb them though, he would be going up blind. But he didn't really have any choice, so he'd just have to be exceedingly careful.
It took him a nerve wracking couple of minutes spent pausing every step to feel around with his fore hooves to make sure the next step was there and sturdy, but soon enough his hoof extended and hit the outside of a door instead of another step. One more moment passed before he found the door knob and gave it a turn before pushing the door open. Inside he could see a crate with a lantern glowing weakly on top of it as its supply of kerosene waned. With such a limited supply it only gave off enough light to illuminate the top of the crate it rested on. Lance sighed with disappointment but stepped forward anyway.
"I'm lucky it's even here at all..." He reminded himself as he approached. It was yet another thing to carry around but if he could find some kerosene later it would definitely pay off...or would he have to bother? Lying next to the lantern was something he was quite familiar with, but something he couldn't believe was there of all places.
It was a surgical crystalline focus light. The unicorn ponies at Canterlot University had designed it about five years back specifically for use in surgery, and Lance had sworn by it ever since. It used a central magic light emitting crystal placed inside of a concave mirror to make a focused beam instead of sending flickering light in every direction the way a lantern would. A switch on the side was able to turn the crystal on and off, enabling the user to preserve the magical charge for when it was needed. When the charge did run out eventually it was a simple matter of having a unicorn recharge the crystal, or just finding another one to replace it. But best of all, it had a clip on the back meant to attach to a surgeon's scrubs. He could attach it to his broken watch's chain and not have to even bother with carrying it.
Another flicker from the lantern reminded him he would only have its dying light for so much longer, so he quickly picked the surgical light up, checked to see that the crystal was in place, attached it to his watch chain, then flipped the switch hoping that it would work.
It did.
"AAAAAAAHHH!!!" He screamed before lashing out with one of his hooves at the suddenly visible pale white abomination of a pony standing on the other side of the crate. It toppled over and Lance looked around in a panic, seeing more of them in the circle of light as it flitted this way and that. They were peeking out from around the boxes and bags in the store room, looking right at him. He backed up toward the door, expecting them to leap out at him at any second...and then he noticed they weren't moving...
They were mannequins.
They were mannequins from the boutique next door that the note had mentioned.
Lance paused, suddenly very glad he was alone with nopony else who might later recount this incident. With a sigh of relief he walked over to the mannequin he had knocked over, stood it back upright, and regarded it awkwardly.
"Um...sorry...I guess." He said before turning to leave. Lance stopped at the doorway, picking up the map he had dropped and then pondering his own actions, "Wait...did I just apologize to a mannequin?"
He looked back to see the group of them still looking right where he had been standing.
"...couldn't hurt." He concluded as he closed the door behind him.
With the added light the trip back down the stairs was considerably less taxing. But the added ease did little to make up for finding the door he had left open when he went upstairs now closed. Was somepony else there after all? The knob turned, so it wasn't locked, but when he tried to push it open he found it wouldn't budge in the least, no matter how hard he pushed. There was something very heavy on the other side and he was not going to get out that way. That only left the two rest rooms. Hesitant as he was to go in either of them he would rather do that than just sit there stuck in the back room.
The door to the stallion's room was locked, and he was again glad to be alone lest walking into the mare's room be just that tiny bit more awkward than it already felt. The place was just as much of a mess as he thought it would be, and pitch black save for what his light was pointed at. Both mirrors were broken, the pipes leading to the three faucets were rusted over and full of holes, one of the faucets had been broken in two, there were shards of porcelain all over the floor, which was teeming with mold left over from stagnant water that had dried up a long time ago. If the mare's room looked like this he was glad the stallion's room had been locked. But the decay aside, the main problem was that there just didn't seem to be anything of use in there at first glance.
What about the stalls? He looked over each one in turn, finding them all latched shut save for the one at the very end in the corner of the room. Lance hesitated, briefly checking beneath the door to make sure it was actually unoccupied. Perhaps he was just being paranoid but this place was making it seem increasingly necessary the more of it he saw. He nudged the stall door open and let it swing inward with a grating creak from the hinges.
The toilet had been ripped out. Behind where it should have been there was a hole in the wall roughly large enough for a full grown pony to walk through while crouched. It went straight through the building to the kitchen, right through the insulation, plumbing, and the scant bit of wiring in between. It made no sense but he didn't stop to question his good fortune as he squeezed through the poorly made tunnel.
He was thankful to be away from the smell of mold as he emerged into the kitchen. There was probably no shortage of spoiled food in there but judging from the lack of stench it was either contained or just so old it had gotten through the ugly part of rotting away already. The oven was gone though...it must have been before the double swinging doors had been replaced because judging by the empty space it left behind there was no way anypony was getting it out through the new single door. He shrugged it off and went on his way, only to be reminded once more that the door was locked with an irritating click of the knob. There was a keyhole though, that meant all he had to do was find the key.
It proved difficult. He looked in every drawer and cabinet, on top of every counter, in every little place he could think of, but there was no key in that kitchen. Perhaps it was in one of the other rooms he had been through and he had just missed it? He was about to squeeze back through the tunnel when something else caught his attention,
"So what did he say?" A mare asked from behind the kitchen door.
A colt cleared his throat, clearly about to eat crow, "He uh...he was really sorry, and he even paid back the money I spent getting my wing wrapped up."
She chuckled, "See? Told you he was an okay colt."
"Yeah...yeah you were right." He admitted.
Lance practically sprinted back over to the door. It was the mare and the colt from the wall again. He pounded on the door, "Hey out there! Can you hear me yet?!"
"Speaking of your wing, how's it doing?" She asked.
"Technically, I can fly again, but the doctor wants me grounded for three more days, just to be safe. No lasting damage though." He replied.
"Okay, still deaf...spectacular." Lance observed bitterly as he sat down and glared at the door. Wait a minute...how did the wing sprain heal that fast? It had only been hours ago when he'd crashed!
"That's great! Bet you've been going crazy, huh?" She asked sympathetically.
"Actually no, it's been good time to catch up on my studies." The colt answered.
"Oh, you're a student?"
"Yeah...well...not yet...to be perfectly honest right now all I'm doing is the weather service to save up for university. It's kind of slow going but in the meantime I can study on my own." He confessed.
"Wow...that's...going to take a while." She replied.
"No kidding...but enough about that...tell me about yourself."
"There's not really that much to tell...I'm a flower pony who just happens to have wings. After I got my cutie mark I realized Cloudsdale wasn't the place for me so I moved here, and here I've been ever since, working as a gardener." The mare explained.
"Can't really make a living off gardening in a city with no ground." He observed.
"Exactly."
"And while I'm thinking of it I uh...got you something." The colt said before Lance heard him set something down on the table.
"What? This is just our second date, you didn't need to get me anything." She said in surprise.
"It's okay trust me, you'll-wait, this is a date? These were dates?!" He asked in quite a bit more surprise.
"Oh, well, only if you want them to be." She replied hopefully.
...
"Yeah...actually...I do want them to be." He answered confidently.
"I'm happy to hear that." She said cheerfully, "But you still didn't need to get me anything."
"Just open the box." He said as Lance heard him slide the box a bit further towards her.
"Hehe, fine!" She said in mock irritation, "...what's this? Saddlebags? But...oh my gosh it has straps to hold my gardening tools in...and holes for my wings! Does it fit?"
There was a brief sound of cloth rubbing together as she slipped them on.
"It fits! This is...this is great! Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome." The colt said.
"I haven't seen anything like this in the stores...did you make you this yourself? You did didn't you?" She prodded teasingly.
"Heh. Guilty!"
"Well good job, even with the bit of weird stitching right here."
"Thanks, that was sort of an accident. I can sew fine but sometimes that stitch just comes out from sheer habit since I'm studying to be a..."
...
A what? Studying to be a what?
Lance stood up and put his ear to the door. Silence. Were they gone? Who the hay just gets up and leaves mid sentence like that? What were a pair of deaf, time skipping ponies even doing just waltzing around this weird place like it was nothin-
His mental ranting was stopped by the sight of a key being slipped beneath the door. He stared down at it incredulously for a while before picking it up. It fit the lock perfectly and within seconds he was pushing the kitchen door open. All the tables from the dining area were gone save for one. On that lone table rested a pair of worn, aged saddlebags, faded purple in color. Were those the saddlebags the colt had just given to the mare? They looked so cheap and used, how could she have gotten excited over such a ratty gift?
Still, he supposed he should at least pick it up and return it if he ever managed to run into them. Despite its obvious age it still looked fairly usable. He hoped they wouldn't mind him borrowing it for now, because holding the map in his mouth had already grown quite bothersome. When he opened the bag to slip the map in he got yet another surprise.
There resting at the bottom of the bag was a pair of wire cutters.
He stared a moment longer before inserting the map and putting on the saddlebags. This was all too strange...and too good. Suddenly he had everything he'd been looking for, and he couldn't escape feeling like he was going to pay for it all somehow.
Lance forced the doubt from his mind once more. It didn't help to dwell on it. All he had to do now was go back to the library crater, open that box, and see what was inside. He'd figured the rest out from there.
When he proceeded to round the corner back into the front bar area he saw what had been blocking his exit from the back room before. It was the missing oven from the kitchen, plus every table and chair that had been missing from the extended dining area. He had no clue how any of that had gotten there without him hearing anything in the least and he didn't feel like stopping to wonder at it right now, so he promptly ignored it and turned toward the door.
Before he could open it he heard a quiet mechanical grinding noise that began to grow louder and louder as he looked around for the source. It sounded like it was coming from right beneath his head...was it his watch? He looked down and held the broken watch in one hoof to find that it was indeed the culprit, and the sound was getting even louder. It was like all the gears inside were going the wrong directions and grinding their teeth together.
"How do I turn this off...I didn't even wind it up..." He said as he looked the watch over.
Then he heard the scrape of metal against metal.
Right outside.