Gladiator

by Not_A_Hat

33 - Manifest

The first thing I noticed on leaving the Palace was noise.

Before, the only movement in the city was us or the enemy. Now, as I walked the streets, I heard voices and hoofsteps. Most of them were unsteady, questioning or wondering, but ponies were talking and walking.

Confused, I followed the nearest clip-clop noise. I found a stallion wandering vaguely through the street, a powder of fine ash sifting from his shoulders. He paused when he saw me, but I held my peace, hands behind my back and expression calm. He walked up and looked me over when I offered no threat or surprise.

"Do I know you?" He asked.

"No idea." I shrugged. "What do you remember?"

"I think-Ow!" He raised a hoof to his head, and I sighed.

"Sorry, buddy." I clapped a hand to his withers, and gave him a reassuring pat. "I don't think so. Don't hurt yourself, now." Leaving him to think, I turned away.

So, the Crystal Ponies were awake. That was good. But, they all had the same memory malfunction as Twilight and the others; at least, the others I'd seen. That was bad.

"Come on, Wes. Get your thinker going." I stumbled down the street, trying to keep my feet under me and come up with an answer at the same time. I'd really taken a beating from Shadow, and although I wasn't in trouble, I was going to be very uncomfortable for a while.

"Ooof." I stumbled against a wall and leaned there a moment, mind blank, before realizing what was happening; I was crashing from an adrenaline high and the stress of a heaping helping of pain. With a groan I forced myself onwards, trying not to look at the bright void above my head.

Surely this wasn't the worst scenario, right? I wasn't lost in a completely new world, with no help and nothing to work from?

My mind drifted back to when I'd stood at the edge of this 'island' and tossed a pebble off. It never struck the bottom.

I shivered. No, I was lost in a world I'd been to once before, with a train full of supplies, and thousands of ponies who needed help. We would all fall into nothing together if I couldn't pull through. I checked my watch, strung on a fine chain around my neck; it was half-past eleven in the morning. I had twenty-four and one-half hours before Shining and Cadence cut us loose. The Elements would make it back, and I might go with them.

Oh, wait.

That had been dependent on the Anomaly continuing, pushing us farther away. If we were now static to Equestria, resographically speaking, would the pull of the Elements be enough to save the mares?

Since they weren't gone yet, probably not.

And though we had a train full of supplies, that wasn't much food for four thousand-plus ponies.

Things were going to get interesting if I didn't manage something.

"No pressure, Wes." I trudged around the corner and breathed relief when the shield came into view. A few local ponies were wandering the edges, tapping on the shell. Rainbow was talking to one; they both seemed confused by how she could enter or exit easily, but not the other. At that, my hopes dipped.

I stepped through the shield and headed into the passenger car. I found Applejack daubing healing salve on her wounds, such as they were; Shadow had bruised us good, but three-on-one let us avoid bleeding profusely. I sat down. She took a good look at me and passed the jar.

"Can you remember me?" I accepted gratefully and started treating the most serious of my lacerations, a seven-inch gash on my forearm. The antiseptic stung.

"Enope." She shook her head. "Thinking too hard hurts. Can't recall you at all."

"Blargh." I groaned, and dropped my head to my hands. "Dang it, Applejack. What am I going to do now?"

She sat in silence for a moment, before surprising me by draping a hoof over my shoulders.

"Well, I don't know you right now, but maybe I did once. Something tells me you're no quitter, though-Ow. Horsefeathers. Sorry. Suddenly, thinking seems real hard."

"No, it's OK." I handed back the jar, and paced into the caboose. My friends needed my help now, and I would do my best for them. At the very least, I needed some idea of what I had to work with.

---

An hour or so later I slumped on a nearby crate and tried not to despair. Applejack had left for a walk. I was tired and hungry and frustration was starting to set in. I'd dug out the cargo manifest, but like before, the collection of boxes seemed to continually shift and change.

"Aaaaaah!" I vented a bit of frustration and thumped my feet against the crate I was sitting on, large enough comfortably hold a good-sized pony. I read the label; it said 'life raft'. I checked the manifest; no life raft listed. Why even send a life raft? Did Celestia cram whatever was handy into the caboose, and hope it would be useful? I glanced at another large crate, perforated with ventilation holes; it said 'oven'. This one was listed, but in the wrong place. I groaned and dropped my head to my hands.

I sat there, mind blank, for quite a while. I wasn't thinking, just drifting. My thoughts spun loosely, like a broken pinwheel. Desperation would give it a push; it would start upwards, working through everything I needed to accomplish, but frustration and overwhelming odds would eventually pull it back down, until it sagged back where it started with a squeak.

Finally sick of dead ends, I resolved to eat something and take a nap. I felt I could actually accomplish that, and life was usually better after. I was about to get up but a noise stopped me.

The crate marked 'oven' was jiggling. I watched with a combination of surprise, shocked anticipation, and pulse-pounding fright as something struggled gently to escape. After a few moments the top came off with an audible crack and a familiar minty-green head popped out.

I nearly fell over in shock.

Lyra Heartstrings yawned hugely, facing away from me.

"Bon-Bon! Hey, Bon-Bon, wake up! We're here!" I nearly jumped in surprise as the crate I was sitting on mumbled incoherently. At the noise, Lyra turned to face me. We locked eyes, both frozen in surprise.

"You are not an oven." I claimed stupidly.

"Psst! Bon-Bon!" She whispered theatrically, eyes locked on mine. "Bon-Bon, Wesley spotted me! What do I do now?"

"Lyra Heartstrings, sometimes I hate you so much." This time I did jump as the crate underneath me rocked, and the powerful earth-pony confectioner literally shoved me off. "I knew we should have used a different spell."

"You don't know the half of it." I rubbed my eyes. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you two. But you've got some serious explaining to do."

---

"Um, thanks." Bon-Bon accepted the bottle and bowl of soup; I'd still wanted lunch, so I served us all. "But, um, why doesn't Applejack remember us?"

"Nope." I shook my head, and sat down firmly across from them. "You first. What on earth were you thinking, stowing away? And how the hay did you pull it off?" They exchanged sheepish looks. I held my peace, flicking the bottle-top off with my thumb; they were sealed with wax and a metal disc. I could get a pretty decent flip if I tried. Lyra watched it spin, fascinated. I snagged it as it came down, and started rolling it across the back of my fingers. After a few moments of awkward silence, Bon-Bon sighed and gave.

"It was my idea." She took a bite of her soup. "You might have guessed, but I'm not actually a simple confectioner."

"Hu-bwa?" The bottle-top fell of my hand, landing in my bowl.

"Oh." Bon-Bon giggled at my obvious confusion. "Well, maybe you didn't. It does use my talent, I guess."

"I had no idea." I fished the metal disc out of my food, and licked it off. "But continue."

"Well," Lyra pried the top off her own drink and took a sip, "I think Pinkie might have mentioned it at your party, but we're actually equuologists."

"Hum." I cast my mind back; maybe she'd said something like that. "Yeah, sure. But what does that actually mean?"

"Oh." Bon-Bon gave me a surprised look. "I keep forgetting that you're not a native speaker. Equuologists study different cultures, what forms them, and what makes them unique."

<"Anthropologists!"> I slugged back a swallow of lemonade. "You're <anthropologists>." Lyra pulled out her notebook, and made an entry. "But how does that end with you hiding in our cargo? And how did you not wake up earlier? There was, literally, a pitched battle no more than forty feet away." Lyra's eyes sharpened at that. "After." I pointed at her and she subsided.

"I told her." Lyra admitted, slightly shamefaced. "You asked me not to spread it around, but the idea of investigating a culture lost for a thousand years...I knew Bon-Bon would be fascinated by the idea. I just underestimated how much."

"Just imagine!" Bon-Bon's eyes were literally shining with excitement, and she was nearly bouncing in place. "Think of all the things we might learn from the relics of their civilization! We might be able to find out what sort of clothes they wore, what sort of food they ate, their arts and crafts, even what sorts of hopes, dreams and goals they had! I want to be the first pony to find out those sorts of things. I need to be the first pony! So, I made Lyra hide us."

"Right." The green unicorn shrugged. "I'm not powerful, but I can cast pretty well if I concentrate. I used a hibernation spell so we could stay in the crates and a muffling spell so nopony would hear us. I even cast an obfustication on the luggage so we wouldn't be noticed easily."

"It's YOUR FAULT!" I exclaimed, pointing angrily with my spoon. "You're the one who was driving me mad! Your obfuscation spell caused the manifest to not match the cargo, and-" I slumped pathetically. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused?"

"Nope!" Lyra chirped. "But I do know we're the first equuologists to set hoof in the Crystal Empire for a thousand years." She glanced bemusedly out the window, staring through the shield. "Why is everything blue?"

"No. I'm not done yet." I waved my hands emphatically. "If you're willing to go so far to investigate a new culture, what the hay are you doing in Ponyville?"

"Seriously?" Bon-Bon gave me a flat stare. "You've been there. Don't you have any idea how screwed up that town is? There's a serious disaster nearly every other week, and world-ending catastrophes on a yearly basis. If I ever figure out what's really going on in that town, it's going to be my doctoral thesis, and it will send my name down in history as the Mare who Knew." She eyed me suspiciously. "You don't happen to have any idea, do you?"

"Can't say I do." I shrugged. Sure, Ponyville was weird, but I hadn't spent much time elsewhere. It was just one more pile of crazy to me. "And you?" I pointed to Lyra.

"Well, I'm not really an equuologist. Don't get me wrong," she waved defensively, "I've got the degree. But that's not where my heart is; I went through college on a scholarship. I spent most of my time fighting."

"There are college scholarships for underground fighting rings?" I asked, flabbergasted.

"There are in Canterlot." She shrugged. "It helps if you thrash the dean of students. I think he recruited me to keep a bit of pride. Mighty good fighter, though, and a real good sport." She smiled. "No, I'm actually her bodyguard." I moved my blank stare back to Bon-Bon, waiting for the next bomb. This was just too unbelievable. She coughed sheepishly.

"My parents wouldn't let me move to Ponyville otherwise. I think I mentioned it's sorta dangerous there." She took another spoonful of soup. "They're well-to-do, and pay her retainer. Though she spends a lot of that on candy."

"Hey, you're a good cook."

"And so, the economy spins on. But anyways, that's the end of the matter."

"So, let me get this straight. You're actually an undercover investigator, trying to write a paper on what makes Ponyville so weird. Lyra is your sidekick-slash-foalsitter, and she told you about the Crystal Empire. You two snuck aboard the train, because you wanted to be part of that. Then you slept for more than a day, and here we are." They nodded. "Ok, I give up. You can ask me questions now. Your story is too crazy not to be true; nopony is that good at lying."

"Um, before that." Lyra shifted uncomfortably. "Can you point me to a bathroom?"

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. Would these two even be any help?

---

"The Crystal Ponies are alive?"

I wordlessly stepped out the door, and beckoned them after. Crystal ponies wandered the streets, staring blankly about. One or two were investigating the shield. My appearance caused a small stir.

"Like I said, they don't remember anything, and neither do the Bearers." I shrugged. "I've no idea where to go from here. We need to either activate the Crystal Heart, or get a message to Celestia. Neither option's easy with the Elements out of commission."

"Any idea what caused the amnesia?" Bon-Bon stepped up to the shield. I hesitated, filtering references to numancy out of my responses. Keeping secrets sucked.

"The Bearers fired on the Heart." I pulled the artifact out of my pack; they gasped. "Sombra was linked to it, using the connection to siphon energy off the Crystal Ponies and imprison them. The connection looked like black crystal vines, and when the Elements hit them, they burned away." I shrugged. "After that they woke up, but everypony connected to the Heart had amnesia. Including the Bearers."

"Oooo." Lyra shuddered. "That's a hard one; sounds like numancy. That's bad news."

"Tell me about it." I sighed, drawing a surprised look. "Anyways," I hurried on, "We've got the whole train to work with. Besides that, whatever we can scrounge, I guess?" I shrugged.

"The library." Bon-Bon gave me a sharp stare. "Lyra said last time you were here you found a library."

"Oh. Yeah, there was at that. Do you think we can find anything helpful there?"

"No idea. But there's no way I'm headed home without getting a look." I shrugged. Fair enough; I had no better ideas.

"Right. Let's go then." I stepped out of the shield, and led them towards the castle.

---

Our going was slow. Every few seconds, we had to drag Bon-Bon back on track.

"Enough!" Finally sick of detours, I grabbed a bit of her mane and towed her. "Talk to me. Earlier, you said confectionary 'uses' your cutie mark. But it seems that's all your cutie mark is. How can you be an equuologist instead?"

"Oh, good question." Lyra gave an approving nod. "You're really starting to think past the obvious."

"Hush, Jedi. You need to stop flip-flopping between faux-mysterious and a silly goofball."

"Hahah, nope!" Lyra pushed her lip out in a pout, and skipped a half-step cheerfully. "The day I become predictable is the day I deserve to get my tail kicked. If you're predictable, they can plan for you. And if they can plan for you, you're dead."

"That...actually makes a little sense?" I frowned, confused. "Anyways." I pushed her weirdness to the back of my mind. "Cutie marks. Tell me more about them."

"Well," Bon-Bon sighed. "Normally, this is the sort of thing you're told after you get your own..."

"Not happening."

"No, I guess not. Fine, I'll give you a run-down. First off, you know cutie marks have power? They actually help improve your talents?"

"Really? I thought they just, sorta indicated."

"Nope. They don't appear until your talent is already developing. They're an extra push, a bit of magical oomph behind your chosen skills."

"Chosen skills?"

"Seriously, Wes." Bon-Bon shot me a frustrated glare. "You hang out with the CMC far too much. You don't seriously think skill comes without practice, do you?"

"Um, but then all the things those fillies do-"

"Pointless."

"What?"

"Oh, really. Don't take it so hard. I mean, they won't get their marks until their magic finishes coming in, anyways."

"Ok, wait, back up. Unpack that."

"What?"

"Until their magic comes in. What do you mean?"

"I know you're a foreigner, but seriously. Your intelligence makes your ignorance on some things surprising." Bon-Bon took a deep breath, and assumed a lecturing air. Behind her. Lyra gently mocked her attitude, puffing out her chest and strutting. I struggled not to laugh. "Look, Wes, this is grade school stuff. Magic, intrinsic power, is something we're born with. But like the rest of our bodies, it's not fully developed when we're born. You've seen how Sweetie can't use her horn all the time? Or Scootaloo can't generate much lift?" I nodded. "That's more than control issues. Their magic isn't done developing. They won't get cutie marks until they're done growing."

"So...they're just goofing off?"

"Pretty much."

"Why doesn't anypony tell them?"

"You think nopony's tried? Give it a shot. Say something like 'Just give it time, your marks will come eventually.' At least this way, they have fun and stay busy."

"Ok, fine. But they're some of the last in their age group! Why's it taking so long?"

"No idea." Bon-Bon shrugged. "I'm an equuologist, not thaumotrician. But there's an old story..." She paused. "Well, I have no idea if it's true. But old mares say the ponies who bloom latest have the most powerful talents."

I thought back to Twilight's story; she hadn't gotten her mark until just before high-school. Several years after the CMC.

"Huh."

"Makes you think, right? Just don't tell them; they have enough worries."

"Sure." I nodded. "You're right. But back to what you said about using your mark."

"It's like this. A cutie mark is a helper. It's a magical boost, tailored to skills you've carefully honed. But, truthfully, not everypony goes into fields utilizing their exact skills. Rarity has a mark for finding gemstones, but she's no miner, or even an appraiser." I nodded at that. "Cutie marks aren't prisons or traps, or anything like that. They're usually founded on something pretty basic, though they may seem specific. If you're clever, you can apply them differently." She gestured to Lyra. "My compatriot has a mark for music, which she uses for fighting. Finding patterns of movement, for instance." She motioned to her own. "Mine is confectionary. But in order to make good candy, you need to understand mixtures, how tiny additions can tip the balance of a whole pot. Not," she smiled, "so very different from social dynamics."

"So...you can choose what your mark does? At least a little? So a cutie mark will never make a pony unhappy?"

"You can choose how to apply a cutie mark. And...well, it is possible to hate yourself, even your cutie mark, or spend your life doing something you dislike, and even be very good at it." She sighed. "There are some tragic cases on record, and likely more we never knew. But there's lots involved in getting marked. Usually, years of practice and maturing. To really hate your cutie mark, you'd need to suborn all of that. It's not impossible, but the system works pretty well."

"As far as we can tell." Lyra added. I raised an eyebrow, and she shrugged. "Seriously, this is all conjecture. Thaumotricians draw inferences, and statistics tells a lot. This is the current theory, hypothesized by some great minds. But true understanding would require knowing either how the system came to be, even the Princesses don't, or numancy research. Cutie marks are restricted. The Internal Peacekeeping Bureau will come down on you like a pile of...bricks. Yeah. Bricks."

"Internal Peacekeeping Bureau?"

"You know, muscular horses in dark suits?" She gave me a searching glance. "Knock down your door, steal your notes, trash the lab, throw the book at you?"

"Lyra...have you been involved in criminal magic research?"

"Ok, look. I wasn't doing numancy. I clearly had not tinkered with magic involving cutie marks in any way. It was all statistics and empirically verifiable data, no thaumic elements whatsoever." She snorted. "The fact it took two months to clear my name doesn't mean a thing to them. Oh, no. Innocent until proven guilty? Phaw."

Bon-Bon and I shared a bemused glance. Clearly, there was a sore spot here.

"This was part of developing a new method of fighting?" Now I was rather intrigued. I still didn't understand what principles Lyra based her martial art on. Only that she was deadly dangerous, without needing huge reserves of magic.

"Later, later padawan."

"I never should have taught you that." I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Jedi."

"You know a lot about magic. Numancy in particular." Lyra shot a searching glare at me. "Want to share some of your secrets yet?" I stopped a hand from instinctively rising to my chest, and shook my head.

"Sorry. Like I said, they're not all mine to tell."

"Well."

"Ok, enough." Bon-Bon stepped between us. "Don't be bitter, you two. You're friends, act like it."

"Sorry." I muttered.

"Me too."

"How about this, then." I raised a finger, thinking up another question. "What about ponies who already have very general talents? What does that mean?"

"Like who?" Lyra gladly accepted my motion for peace.

"Like Twilight."

"Twilight? Isn't her talent something with astronomy?"

"Um, no? Why would you...oh yeah, stars. No. Her talent is magic itself." They both froze at that, and I turned to see what was bothering them. Expressions of shock stood plain on their faces.

"What? Should I have not told you that?"

"Um..." Bon-Bon coughed. "Well. I think we'll be Ok. But, no. That's not the sort of rumor you should spread."

"But it's not-"

"Look, Wes." Lyra gave me a gentle push to start me walking. "You're new to this, so I'll explain. That cutie mark is absolutely impossible. Consider; cutie marks are magical."

"Sure."

"So, a talent for magic in general would be a talent that included cutie marks."

"Right?"

"Don't you see? It's a circular talent. I don't think something that broken could exist. It would have ridiculous effects. It's not the sort of thing a simple librarian pony could have."

"She's princess Celestia's personal student, and the bearer of the Element of Magic."

"Still."

"Oh."

"Wait, is that a glass jar?"

---

We eventually did make it to the library. Lyra almost choked laughing at 'the door that was a jar', but we eventually dragged her away, snorting and giggling.

We wandered the halls for a while. The deeper we got into the castle, the fewer and fewer crystal ponies we found. When we finally did reach the archives, I was very relieved; I was half-certain I'd gotten us lost, and we'd been wandering in circles.

In the center of the empty floor stood a half-dozen tall stacks of books and one familiar purple pony. She was skimming through tomes, muttering to herself, and every few moments wincing in pain.

"Twilight!" I called. She turned to give us the blank stare of incomprehension all the amnesiacs shared. I ran over and dropped to one knee so I could look her in the face. "Hey, you Ok?" I gently took the book she was holding and closed it. "Don't hurt yourself!"

"I can't remember!" I tensed up as she flung her forelegs around my neck and started crying on my shoulder. "I can't remember, but I need to know! And it hurts, but if I don't do something, who will? I don't know what, or why, but there's something I need to be doing! It's all going to go wrong, it's all going to fail, it's all my fault!" After that, all I heard were sobs.

I knelt there awkwardly and patted her back. She wept inconsolably.

"There, there." I felt absolutely useless. Her cries tore at my heart. My words only seemed to make it worse, but after a while, she did calm down. "Feel better?" I set her on the ground and gently wiped her tears with my sleeve. "Look, Twilight. You can't remember me, but you're not alone. You don't have to do everything by yourself. You have friends, good ones. I'm one, and I won't let you fail."

"Really?" She sniffled, voice small.

"Really really. Cheer up. Look, these are your friends, too. They remember you. Lyra, Bon-Bon, Twilight could use a hug." The two ponies embraced her, and her depression lifted somewhat. "Now, you remember books. Maybe you could look for information on the Crystal Heart?"

"Okay." She meekly turned back to her stacks, and started sorting through them. Lyra and Bon-Bon split up and squared off against bookshelves of their own. I picked up a book, and flipped to the table of contents.

After a while, I found myself working near Lyra.

"Wes, your attitude on the way here was off. What's eating you?"

"Besides our predicament?"

"Besides."

"I tried to kill a pony today. Maybe even succeeded."

"Did they deserve it?" Surprised, I turned to look at her.

"I...I thought so at the time." I put the book down, and rubbed my eyes. "He was threatening me and my friends. Interfering with a rescue. Tearing through my defenses. The only way to stop him was lethal force, and surrender wasn't an option."

"You thought that out? Didn't just hurt them in anger?"

"Y-yeah."

"Then, good job."

"I..." I paused. "I thought it would bother you"

"Not saying it doesn't. But look, Wes." Lyra sighed. "I'll make no bones about it; I plan to turn you into a lethal weapon. You'd already got a good start. As soon as I saw you, I knew you had been in life-or-death fights. Since you survived, I figured you had blood on your hooves, but I still picked you as my student. I've told you why I rejected the Canterlot fighting styles, right?"

"None of them suited you?"

"Basically, but that's because none of them were actually practical. Faugh." She nearly spat. "The founders would cry to see how their art has been crippled for sport." She re-shelved a book, and shot me a glance. "Fighting isn't a hobby for me, Wes. It's a major part of my life, not a game. You don't reach that spot without a serious push. You're not the only killer here." She rubbed her eyes, and paused a second. "I've been through some rough stuff, Wes. Came out worse for wear, some ways. After, I decided I needed to be able to fight. I didn't ever want to be defenseless again. Personal power is the hardest to steal. You know what I mean."

"Did you-"

"Stop." Lyra had grit her teeth, and her voice quavered slightly. "No. Later, maybe, once we can be vulnerable. Then I'll tell the story."

"Ok." I nodded slowly.

"Point is, I picked you because you can hurt somepony if they need it. You're not playing around. But, I think you're strong enough to know if they really need it. If you say it was necessary, I won't judge that."

"...thanks."

I turned, hearing Bon-Bon approach. She passed me a book, open to a middle page.

"Found something?" Lyra asked.

"Yup!" Twilight trotted up as well, looking much less distraught. "I read it earlier, but didn't realize it was important."

"We may have found a way to charge the Crystal Heart." Bon-Bon ran a hoof across the page, underlining the heading.

"Care and Keeping of the Heart: Renewing the Spirit of Love and Unity through the Crystal Faire..." I read aloud, a bit of hope welling as the import of the words sunk in. "We can charge the Heart by...throwing a party?"

"PARTY?"

"I know somepony who'll want to help."

Comments

[earthrise]

This was a fun chapter.

[Hirovard]

"Really really

Mr Author, you are either really suttle, or including references without realising it ;)

[King Pandarius]

Lyra and Bon Bon shipping... Literally

[Not_A_Hat]

4184200 I try for subtlety, but since I'm not sure what the reference is, I'm probably the other. :p

4184404 The fact that I didn't even consider this makes me groan.

4184133 Awesome! Fun is my only goal for this story, so I'm glad to hit it.

[hs0003]

Soo Twilights cutiemark is actually circular, but Lyra and Bon Bon can't accept it because it is OP?
Mares please, did you see Twilight work her magic on that ursa minor?

[sjo3989]

I like it.......Another!!!

[cosmosain]

4187298 apparently not

[hs0003]

4190980 I think they are in denial, it is obvious that they don't know a lot about her when they called her a "Simple librarian".

[cosmosain]

4191011 and not Celestia's star pupal
or the element of magic

[damnaion]

hummm and lol

[GoldenCyclone4]

4184404 ...No.

[StarChaser01]

"I don't so.

You don't what so?

[Not_A_Hat]

5216495 Think so. Fixed!

[VcSaJen]

They act like this knowledge is so simple, it's must be known by everyone in everywhere. Yet they don't think twice about it, take this incomplete broken knowledge for granted, don't ask questions to themselves, because "it's too simple", and dismiss anything contradicting this theory.

[DarklightArk]

4184639 ok, this might be pointless but I really really want Lyra's backstory as its own story I mean omg all the things...