Life Change, in 127.8 Seconds

by Cool writer


Chapter 8, The Lord of Stories

I could tell from the moment I entered the building that Uncs would LOVE it here. The inside of "The Lord of Stories" was a well-furnished bookstore. Lots of shelves containing hundreds of books. A few chairs were put about, but the chairs looked like a mismatch from every age. A mid-evil throne chair, an Egyptian throne chair, a bean bag, a futuristic sofa, it all looked like some sort of time traveler lived here! There was a stone fireplace with an impressive hearth in the back of the room. The fire was lit. It looked like the perfect place to curl up with a book and read. If Uncs found this place... I'd probably never see him again! To the left of the door was a counter, with a staircase behind it, probably leading to some living space.
"Hello!?!" Dusk called out to the empty room. "Anypony home?" BOOM! An explosion and a flash of light came from the top of the stairs. Down fell a red unicorn, with soot and ash all over his face. He had a blond scruffy mane and glasses. He stood up and looked back up the stairs.
"Lyra! You ok?" He called.
"Yeah!" A female voice called back down. "But I could use help holding the lever!" I cocked my head. Lever? The unicorn then noticed us.
"Oh hello!" He said. "Hi, Dusk! Look, I was just gonna come look for you..." He said.
"Yeah, look-" Dusk began.
"Can I see that amulet I let you borrow?" He asked. Dusk pulled out the amulet and handed it to the unicorn.
"Sure but-"
"I'd love to talk, but I really don't have time." The unicorn said. "I can talk later, goodbye, go on!" The unicorn said his horn glowing and we flew out the door. "Sorry to be so blunt, ttyl! Goodnight!" He said as the door began to glow the same gold of the unicorn's horn and slammed shut. I take a moment before I looked at Dusk and said:
"Ok, what just happened?!?"


Dusk knocked on the door for a while, trying to get his friend (who he told me was named "The Author") to come back and talk to him. I was looking at the upstairs windows, wich periodically flashed with light. We heard a weird groaning noise, and then the flashes of light stopped. We knocked, but no answer. So, we decided to look around town a bit more before we headed back to Dusk's house. As we looked at the deserted shops and streets, I noticed Dusk was being quiet.
"Hey, what's up?" I asked him. He looked up at me.
"Oh, it's nothing... just- I was thinking back on something he said. 'TTYL'... what does that mean?" I knew what that meant. It was easy.
"Talk to you later," I said. Dusk looked confused.
"What?"
"TTYL. Talk. To. You. Later. It's an anagram for when you're texting." I explained.
"Texting?" I stopped.
"You don't have texting here?" I asked. Dusk shook his head. "Cell phones?" Another shake. "Regular phones?" No. "Electricity? Wait, what powers your appliances?"
"Magic. What, you don't have magic?" Dusk asked. Now it was my turn to shake my head.
"No, it's just-" I froze. "I just realized something. If phones and texting don't exist here... then how does he know what 'TTYL' means?" Dusk thought about it for a moment.
"Hey you're right!" He said, catching onto my train of thought. "If it's from your world..."
"Then so's he!" We both said together. We turned and ran back down the street, back to the Lord of Stories.