The master and the windigo

by stupidswampdragon

22 - Price

"Lyra, are you even listening?"

Hearing her name, Lyra jolted and glanced around. Her gaze remained completely vacant though; it took her a while to actually see, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Bon.

"Seriously! What's wrong with you?" the earth pony lashed out. She grabbed a glass full of orange juice and bumped it right into her friend's nose. "Here, drink this up!"

"Uh... huh," Lyra nodded. A hollow reaction at best; she kept staring at the glass numbly, as if the sweet juice was a completely alien concept to her. "What's this?"

"Orange," Bon smacked herself over the face with a groan. "Now stop asking questions and just drink it already, dammit. You look like you could really use the vitamins."

"Uh-huh," Lyra nodded again. She grabbed the glass, gave it a lengthy stare, taking her time to decide what she wanted to do with it... then something tipped inside her head and she downed the juice in one go.

"Seriously, are you sick or something?" Bon sighed. She scratched the top of her head, but she was really more unnerved than lost. "I haven't seen you look this bad since... well, okay, let's just say that I haven't seen you this bad for a very long while."

Lyra raised her eyebrows and pursed her mouth, nodding faintly in agreement. There was no denying any of that; it was all so blatantly obvious. She hadn't slept much for the last four days, only taking naps when she collapsed from exhaustion. Not even those lasted long; she was too anxious to sleep properly. She couldn't keep her eyes closed for more than a few hours, no matter how much she felt as if she had been wrought dry.

It's not like being awake was any better. The same anxiety plagued her days just as much as her nights. She didn't feel like eating, she didn't feel like drinking, she didn't feel like doing anything. She didn't feel like leaving her room, period. It took Bon a generous number of threats to drag her out for a snack, somewhere around the second day.

Things hadn't improved much since.

"I'm fine," Lyra sighed and placed the empty glass back onto the table. "I'm just, you see... I'm... a little worried-"

She bit onto her lazily rolling tongue, berating herself silently.

I didn't just say that, right? Too much information...

"Worried!" Bon frowned and leaned closer, onto the table. Loud clinging accompanied the move - she had inadvertently shuffled some glasses to the side. "About what?"

Lyra bit onto her lip and lowered her gaze onto the floor.

There we go! If I could only tell you! But I already know how you would react, so... heh.

She debated what she could say, for neither telling the truth nor keeping silent were options. She had no choice; she had to be inventive with the truth.

"You remember Major Mare's latest idea?"

Bon drew back and narrowed her eyes, humming loudly as she worked the gears in her head.

"Let's see... there was the one... then the other... oh wait!" Bon slammed her hoof against the table. Another loud clang; the overturned glasses began rolling around. "You're talking about the screw-you-all festival, right? The one that's totally unrelated to how Major wasn't invited to the Big And Glorious Wedding In Canterlot."

"Yeah. That one," Lyra nodded sombrely. Not even the venomous sarcasm could lift her mood this time. "So you see, I was like, contracted to provide music for that one. As part of an ad-hoc band."

She wondered if she should have added 'and this scares the living daylights out of me', but decided against being that obvious.

"Wha... whahahat?" Bon reared her head back. She tried her best at speaking and laughing at the same time, but wasn't winning any awards with her solution. "I'm sorry, but... whaHAhat? You - Lyra Heartstrings, the prominent musician - you are afraid of a token role at a small festival?"

The title rubbed Lyra with all the kindness of a kick to the nose. Yeah, right... prominent musician! She hadn't told anypony about her misfortune so far, not even Bon - it was only natural for her friend to misunderstand the issue. She crooked her ears a little; the misunderstanding may have been expected, but it still made for an isolating experience. It just couldn't be helped, though. She needed more time to figure her own reactions out. Bon would have blamed Snowy, that was for sure; but Lyra wanted none of that. She was the one at fault, and last thing she wanted was the windigo to take the fall.

Grrr... she would love this chance to save her Master, I bet.

She was having none of that. She grabbed an empty glass and rolled it around aloofly, thinking of a good enough way to twist the truth.

"Wait, don't tell me-!"

The surprised yell pulled Lyra back into the conversation. Bon was staring at her, but the earth pony's expression had changed - she was no longer grinning, and looked as if she saw a monster at the other side of the table.

Which she couldn't have had, as Snowy was perfectly invisible to her.

"Are you having stage fright again?" Bon balked. "Lyra, you've performed at far greater places! Heck, you've even appeared in the Opera! What's the matter all of a sudden?"

Lyra put the glass back onto the table, hung her head low and made a bittersweet grin.

Gah! I'm like, THIS close to telling you - I really am! But I just know what you would say, and I... I don't want to fight you over Snowy. My life's crappy enough already!

"I've simply got a bad feeling that something will happen." She went with the idea of not even trying to explain. It was a cop-out and she felt truly ashamed of herself, but she couldn't bring herself to dare the alternative. "Something like you've never seen."

"Oh... so basically a premonition?" Bon perked her ears, then dropped them back horizontal. She also turned her gaze down to the table, reaching to right the glasses she had toppled earlier. "Must be a pretty bad one, if it got you this spooked."

"Yeah," Lyra chuckled wryly. "It's pretty bad."

---

"Master should take a rest," Snowy demanded with an unusually stern, almost commanding voice. "A proper one."

"I'll have all the time to rest once I've tanked my career," Lyra snarled irately. She tried to push the windigo out of her view, but her hooves passed through the creature as usual.

"Master will be hurt if Master keeps up this routine," Snowy remained firmly in place, stubbornly trying to appeal to her master's sense. "Master is barely herself now!"

Lyra didn't need to be told that. Bon had already dragged her to a mirror, just to show how awful she looked. The unkempt and fuzzy mane, the bloodshot and swollen eyes, the dangling mouth... Lyra had to admit that even she was shocked at her transformation.

That sad fact mattered little in the face of her mounting worries, however.

"Snowy... just shut up, okay? Shut up and don't make my job any harder," she growled with a low, almost guttural tone. She was trying to be threatening, and succeeded effortlessly; all she had to do was to channel her inner anxiety and frustration. "I've got a little more than a week to learn how to play the lyre. That's already bad enough, even without you annoying me!"

That much was true - the whole situation was pretty bad, and neither of them had any ideas just how it could have come about. The only conclusion they could arrive at was that they had misunderstood Snowy's ability. They had gone through the diary and their memories at least a dozen times already, but Lyra's loss was clearly unrelated to any of the erasures the windigo had done.

Snowy had never had to make anypony forget about playing musical instruments; but yet, somehow, Lyra had lost that very specific part of her self.

...and she only had until the end of her holiday to recover. There was no way she could go back on her contract and decide not to show up at Major Mare's festival. That would have been an outrage. So she had a half dozen days to relearn everything - all that had originally taken her a decade to master.

Considering all that, how could she not be a nervous wreck?

"I'm sorry," Snowy muttered. She stopped pushing the issue and scampered away, defeated and disheartened.

Lyra didn't really look; she had seen the windigo mope more than enough times already. She had more pressing matters to attend to anyway... like her own problem.

Right... where was I?

She held the lyre in front of her and pulled on a string. Her ears flexed as she listened to the resulting sound; but she was back to shaking her head in disappointment soon after.

She couldn't recognize the sound. She couldn't even tell whether she was simply unused to the lyre's sound or was doing something wrong. She could only remember how effortlessly she had been able to operate the instrument mere weeks earlier.

To get her touch back in a week... no, that was impossible.

She let go of the lyre and bit onto her lip, viciously. Pain numbed half her face and a coppery taste invaded her mouth, but she broke into a grin nevertheless. The self-inflicted punishment may have been pointless, but it only felt proper to suffer.

The cheater has to pay the price, doesn't she.

She really should have taken Bon's advice back at the beginning. She should have gone to the Guard and told them everything. Sure, they would have wasted Snowy's potential; but at the same time, they would have taken care to keep everypony involved safe. And safe she longed to be. She didn't want to be sitting in her room, shut off from the world, too agitated to even cry. Talking of agitated...

"It's not your fault," Lyra addressed her windigo as she leaned over, crashing head-first onto her bed. "You haven't done anything I haven't asked of you... only a poor shepherd would blame her flock."

"I made Master suffer," Snowy rattled. She had scooped up in a corner and was facing the wall, looking like a small, shiny blue ball. "I should never do that, no matter what happens."

Lyra dug her nose into the pillow and snorted loudly. That sentence, it sounded wrong.

No matter what happens, huh...

Lying on the bed with the warm fabric beneath her head, her face contorted into a weary grimace. That was the very logic she had been trying to snap Snowy out of - without much success, apparently. She figured the disaster wouldn't help with the task either; she could easily see Snowy searching atonement by turning even more subservient.

Lyra didn't want a slave, however. She wasn't even expecting to be repaid for her efforts in the first place! She had meant to help...!

Keh! If only I had known the price I would have to pay... in advance, I mean.

She pulled the pillow over her head with a huff. Had she known it would turn out like this...

Actually, would I have done anything any differently?

She had the ability to change lives for the better. The lives of all the ponies around her, and maybe also that of her windigo. A powerful ability that carried a lot of dangers; but a unique chance with incredible potential all the same.

She pulled the pillow even tighter onto her head - so tightly that her horn tore a hole into the fabric. She tried to imagine the Lyra Heartstrings who chose to play it safe and just shrugged at the possibility.

Would I have been content like that, wilfully looking the other way? Not even trying to help when I had the chance?

Peeking out from beneath the cover of the pillow, her amber eyes narrowed to slits. She didn't like how that question sounded! It was all sorts of stupid.

She wouldn't have been. Of course she wouldn't have been. How could have she been?

Besides... it's not like she had simply lost everything with nothing in return. She had helped a few ponies already.

Surely that amounts to something!

She flipped the pillow off her head and threw it to the floor, glancing behind her back. Her gaze came to rest on the lyre, and something ached behind her ribs. She knew that objects didn't have feelings and that it was a silly notion; but at that very moment, her trusty lyre looked pretty lonely and abandoned. She had spent so much time with the thing, had so much fun... and now it was just collecting dust sitting next to her bed, unused and discarded.

The image resonated with Lyra.

Her days as a musician had come to an end. Whether temporarily or for good, only the future could tell... but it was clear that she wouldn't be returning to the business any time soon. She didn't suffer in vain, however.

Right... I've spent so much time cooped up in this room that I completely forgot what I've used Snowy for.

Tempering her bittersweet grimace with a smile, she recalled the few days she had spent helping others. If that was truly the reason for her loss, then maybe it wasn't such a disastrous exchange.

"Come, Snowy... we're going for a walk!" she commanded and bounced off her bed. "Let's see how things changed while we were locked up in here."

If she had to stop being a musician, then she might as well embrace being a hero.

---

A light wind rushed down the street, fuzzing the cyan mane before quickly moving along. Any other day, Lyra would have been a little upset how her nicely combed features were being ruined; but after her solitary confinement, she found the sensation refreshing.

It wasn't like many could have seen how unkempt she looked. The street was pretty deserted. She had left the house shortly before noon, so most ponies were either at work or having lunch. All for the better, as far as she cared. She was far from pretty and was acutely aware of the fact; the fewer that saw her in that state, the better.

She wouldn't have gone back to the house, however; she realized that after a mere twenty steps outside. The blue sky above, the warm sunlight, the fresh outside air... while she had been cut off from those for but a few days, their return felt as if she had been reborn. Not fully reborn, for her body still felt ready to fall apart; the lack of sleep and the non-stop anxiety had given her no favours.

She was pretty much reborn in mind and spirits at least.

Walking with her gaze lost in the sky, she even dared as far as to give a barely noticeable grin. She wasn't thinking of anything in particular, and that may have been the key. She was a lot better because the mad grind to recover her music was purged from her mind.

It's so peaceful, she noted - then almost fell over, her hoof slipping off the curbstone. She stumbled a few steps, aimlessly following wherever her momentum took her. She was on the other side of the street when she transitioned to a regular walk, staring down the next intersection.

Heh... seems my rotten luck doesn't want to let up, she frowned and scratched her neck. Her mane was an oily, unkempt mess that pulled on her skin whenever she moved too fast.

"Master, look!" Snowy popped into her view. The windigo's hoof was pointed down the cross street, at a large building in the distance.

"The bank," Lyra whispered and broke into a shiver. That was partly because of the memories... and partly because of her hoof pulling a few strands of hair out from her neck. She repeated the shaking motion again, this time to rearrange her coat into a more comfortable fashion. Then she began to walk in her slow, sky-gazing manner, pacing towards the bank.

---

The Source watched Lyra walk by. She moved so close that she ruffled the green robe, her windigo going as far as walking through the game master. Then they continued to march on, none the wiser.

The Source shook its head disapprovingly. No matter how daring the attempts were, neither Lyra nor that stupid windigo could sense the unnatural presence. Perhaps unsurprisingly so. That unicorn had no formal training in magic, after all.

"It would have been nice if you had turned out to be a prodigy though," the Source sighed at the musician.

Or rather: former musician.

The absolute meltdown that development had triggered had been quite the surprise. The Source had always known that playing music was important to Lyra, but it hadn't assumed that the pony was that attached to the art of sounds.

It was a stroke of blind luck, no denying that. The Source had only wanted to make sure Lyra couldn't settle back into her former life; to force her to remain active in the game. There was no hint that losing those memories would carry so much significance. Music was a pretty useless skill set; a form of decadency, a subdued form of hedonism. It certainly presented no advantage in survival.

"Even I deserve a lucky break every now and then, I suppose." The Source stretched its neck. It wanted to keep an eye on Lyra, but the hood started getting in the way; so it raised a purple hoof and brushed the garment out of the way.

Gazing at the figures of the cyan unicorn and the windigo, the Source wondered what they should lose next.

The windigo - just like all the other servants - was just a manifestation of the Source's power, after all. It may have been the ghostly creature who altered the minds, but the true magic always came from the Source. None of the players had realized that so far, but thus it was also the Source that decided the scales of the exchange. Cheaters had to pay, yes; but none had realized how that rule was invented and enforced solely by their very game master.

Rules like how Lyra would lose some of her own memories whenever she messed with the heads of others.

"You were more cavalier with my powers than anyone else before. Absolutely reckless," the Source snickered at the pony and took a more comfortable pose, its side leaning against the wall. "And you did all that while you still had things to lose! I wonder what you will be truly like, once you will have nothing holding you back."

She could be like a force of nature - wild and unyielding.

That prospect drew a toothy grin to the hooded pony's face.

---

Lyra was halfway to the bank when an alarm went off in her head. She couldn't put a hoof onto it, but something seemed off. Given her already glacially slow pace, she didn't slow down or anything; she simply focused more of her attention on the large building.

She saw little actual reason for concern, however. The place looked as peaceful as possible. The shutters were wide open and the windows glittered in the sunlight, casting their reflections onto the nearby buildings and the cobblestoned street below. The large, two-parter door in the front was just as it had been before, waiting the clients with stoic indifference.

The more Lyra eyed the building, the more certain she grew that there wasn't anything wrong with it. Even so, the uneasy feeling just wouldn't let up.

Huh. How strange. I wonder if-

Not looking where she was placing her hooves carried the predictable result; a step became too shallow and the horseshoe on her left skidded along the pavement. It wasn't a painful mistake, but it easily could have been - she tilted forward and almost fell on her nose.

Ugh... probably just my mind playing tricks, she used the a momentary pause to rub her burning eyes. My kingdom for a proper sleep!

"It feels strange, coming here." Snowy broke their long silence by the means of a nervous chirp. "This is where Master had used my powers for the first... naye, the second time. I wonder if it's going to be safe, coming here. Had anypony found out what we'd done..."

"Second, you say?" Lyra squinted, the unexpected correction taking priority over her baseless paranoia. "What was the first then?"

"The viscount in Master's room, of course!" Snowy smirked. She pronounced the word viscount with an unmistakeable air of pride; it was so different from the rest of the sentence that it drew her master's interest.

"Hah, indeed. I always thought it was strange for him to just pop up in my room." Lyra snorted at the memory, then furrowed her forehead as she thought more on the issue. "Strange, though. I couldn't have ordered you to do that, right? I mean, I hadn't known this much about you back then."

"Indeed," Snowy lowered her head; the fact was visibly not meshing well with her. "I have no idea how that came to be, to be honest. I surmise that I had acted on instinct - I had to do something, after all. Master's life was in peril."

So that's why she was so proud? That she had saved me on her own initiative? Lyra rolled her eyes at the subservience that seemed to know no bounds. That sarcastic display gave place to bewilderment as she realized the true importance of the situation, though. Wait - that means that she could be wholly independent! She already acted on her own back there! All it took was... uh... me being in... mortal danger.

On a second thought, training her windigo that way didn't sound very enticing.

The conversation was suspended as the duo passed a pegasus walking in the opposite direction. Lyra used the forced silence to mull over that fateful night, back in the Dancing Lights. The more she thought about it, there more she felt there was something she had been meaning to ask about...

"You said you acted on instinct," she whispered, her head turned all the way around; she only wanted to resume talking once the pegasus was surely out of ear-range. "Did you really have no idea what powers you had? Not even a tiny little bit?"

Snowy's features twisted into a pained grimace; her answer also came after a considerable delay, a testament to her resentment of the mere suggestion.

"Had I known what I was capable of, I wouldn't have made Master go through the pains of discovering it," she explained in a forcibly cool tone.

"Yeah, sorry. Just making sure." Lyra nodded faintly. She had never paid Snowy's amnesia much thought; it was easy to assume that it was somehow caused by that crooked Old Master. However, after her own misfortune, Lyra saw another, even more disturbing possibility loom over the horizon. She gathered her strength, squeezed her eyes and rearranged the words in her head... then inhaled and went ahead. "Snowy... can you think of a reason your old master would have wanted you to forget about... well, about that?"

There - the cat was out of the bag. While she was careful to phrase it in a way that made the old coot responsible, Lyra was really interested in the polar opposite.

Snowy, is it possible you're also erasing your own memories when I ask you to use your power?

"No." Snowy shook her head firmly, sending her translucent mane flying in all directions. "Old Master never displayed any interest or care towards my skills. I very much doubt he would have resorted to using my powers - even if for the purpose of sealing them."

"It could have been by accident." Lyra put her final card on the table. She didn't look at Snowy. She was staring forward, but didn't see anything with her glassy gaze.

All her focus went into hoping she wouldn't hear the answer she expected she would hear.

"In all likelihood, it was by accident." Snowy chuckled wryly to herself, then took a loud breath. It was one of the rare moments when she really resembled a real, living pony. "I've spent quite a few nights thinking about that... whenever I had some free time, watching over Master in her sleep. I now figure I must have saved Old Master from the snowstorm, at the cost of his companions; though whether I have actively caused their demise or simply neglected them, I will never know. Either way, my powers to manipulate heat aren't that strong; so to save him, I must have..."

The mighty windigo trailed off and fell silent; she went as far as gulp in her fight to get the word off her tongue.

"You cheated," Lyra sighed. "You saved him, but at the expense of your collective memories."

Snowy bobbed her head up and down, and looked very thankful for not having been forced to point that out herself.

"It doesn't seem very fair though. I mean, seriously - memories for keeping a pony warm?" Lyra cackled and shook her head, her disbelief still going strong. "How does that even work out? What's the exchange rate? How could any rate be fair?"

"I don't know. Though to be honest, it still seems more fair than what Master is going through." Snowy raised her eyebrow high and gave Lyra a piercing stare. "Old Master had avoided a guaranteed death at the cost of starting a new life. Master, in turn, has lost her biggest purpose in life, in exchange for... pulling a fashion designer out of a tight spot? For nulling out an ordinary loan? For giving a librarian a chance to properly experience some books for the second time? How does any of those seem fair?"

Lyra ceded the point in silence. When presented like that, the facts did hint that she had gotten a little short-changed. Whether thanks to some nefarious plan or her remarkably poor luck, however... that was impossible to tell.

For the time being, anyway.

She interrupted that thought by furiously shaking her head. She didn't want to delve deep into the matter; she was afraid of wondering about the train wreck her life had become. Maybe later. For now, she was wandering aimlessly around Ponyville, enjoying the sunlight... and feeling passable. She didn't want to ruin that.

"Master! Company!"

Lyra had just enough time to glance around in haste. She was passing a junction, the last one before the bank; the streets were still devoid of traffic, apart from the one pony that Snowy had warned about.

That one pony that had also worn a silly hat - a hat so distinctive that Lyra could instantly recognize it anywhere.

"Applejack...!" she blurted out in shock.

Applejack was walking with the same dazed look on her face that Lyra had born a little earlier. Hearing her name was enough to bring her out of her stupor though; she straightened herself and yanked her head up.

"Oh! Well, howdy there!" She gave the cyan musician a hearty grin... after a noticeable delay. "And here Ah was thinking to mahself that ya' looked awfully familiar... what brings ya' over here?"

"Pretty much just walking around town." Lyra shrugged and smiled aloofly, doing her best to display her carefree side. "What about you? Aren't you supposed to be selling apples?"

"Ah, well, 'bout that... Ah' don't need to worry 'bout that for a while Ah' don't think," Applejack smiled. She was either incredibly nervous or incredibly bad at lying, for all her feelings were readily displayed on her face - rendering her smile fake the very instant it was made.

Lyra didn't like that look. She didn't like it one bit.

"Is... is there a problem?" she asked in a faltering tone. She could barely squeeze the question out; there was a large knot swelling in her throat.

Applejack looked at the musician. There was sadness and pity mixing in her eyes; she didn't maintain the eye-contact long either. She pulled on her hat hard, bringing down until it completely hid her eyes.

"Yep," she then confirmed Lyra's worst fears. "There's been a lil'... misunderstanding."

---

"Closed for technical reasons," Lyra read the note aloud. She scratched the top of her head and hummed to herself, wondering just what that could have meant.

It was the first time she had seen a bank close for 'technical reasons'. Grocery stores had that bad habit, disappearing due to the highly technical issue of running out of money. And that snack buffet she loved going to, next to the train station in Canterlot. But a bank, of all things?

She shook her head wildly, her surprise tempered by a badly timed yawn. It may have been the exhaustion slowing her thought-process, but she couldn't wrap her head around the situation.

How could a bank get closed like that? Aren't they the ones printing money? Or making money out of nothing? Or... or whatever that magazine said.

"Technical reasons?" Snowy murmured barely audibly. She displayed the same level of puzzlement as her master. She re-read the note several times, and even made circles around the paper, as if the message might change if viewed from a different angle. "Just what constitutes as a technical reason? Did they lose the key to the front door? Did the lock break?"

Cocking her head to the side with a goofy grin plastered across her face, Lyra had to admit: she hadn't thought of that.

Oi, oi, oi... aren't you taking this note here a little too literally?

Though on a second thought, the door experiencing technical difficulties was no more unlikely than the bank itself running out of funds.

"Technical reasons, eh?" Applejack joined the duo in dumbstruck gawking. "Well ain't that a treat! Guess that explains why there ain't no-one around here either, though."

Lyra bumped herself on the forehead, then peeked around all sneaky-like. She had noticed earlier how clean the adjacent streets had been... but she didn't make the connection between that fact and the note.

Haaa... I really shouldn't leave home without Bon, she cringed as she returned to smiling like those dumb poster-mares did. To think even this farmer would make me look so stupid!

"Haa, ain't this some rotten luck!" Applejack knocked her head against the closed doors. She then rolled around and slumped down, her back against the closed entrance. She lowered her head and let it sway from one side to the other, all the while chuckling sombrely to herself. "A pretty rotten business, too..."

Standing on the sideline of the unfolding scene, Lyra wrinkled her eyebrows and returned to scratching her head. She had imagined a lot of ways that conversation could go - but to have the hearty farmmare act like that... that wasn't among them.

"This pony sure looked a lot happier the last time we met," Snowy crept closer to Applejack. She still kept a safe distance, and only inspected the earth pony by leaning forward and stretching her neck. "What could have happened to her, I wonder? Doesn't she have a veritable wealth now?"

Lyra had no answers to that one. The exact same conundrum was keeping her thoughts busy, in fact.

She did say she had a little misunderstanding, just now. She rewound the past few minutes in her head. Does it have something to do with the bank?

Moving her eyes to the left, she gave the 'technical problems' note a pondering stare. The longer she remained in place and stared at the paper, the worse she felt. Her head seemed to have become heavy and her limbs were tingling with a worrisome numbness. Nothing she couldn't chalk up to the last days' insomnia... had she not been certain her ailments weren't due to exhaustion.

She was experiencing that foreboding shock. The one which had always acted as a prelude to a disaster.

We couldn't have made a mistake with the bank, right? she pursed her lips. I was trusting Snowy back there, though. When was the last time she had been around? A few hundred years? Even if she had correctly remembered everything about finance, the times may have changed...

The worrisome thoughts gathering in her head, Lyra felt close to breaking into a shiver... so she closed her teeth and squeezed hard. She couldn't afford losing her composure. Not in front of Applejack - and especially not before learning just what had gone wrong.

Don't give up just yet, girl. There's still a chance you can fix this screw-up!

She drew a deep breath and tried to clear her mind. She was going to have to feign calmness; and she was going to have to do it well.

Positive thoughts!

"You look pretty worn," she turned to Applejack... or to Applejack's silly hat, rather. It was brought so low that it covered the entirety of the farmmare's face.

Applejack took her time to answer; she had to stop dragging her head left and right at first.

"Yea'. Ah' s'pose Ah' might." She finally spoke up, immediately starting with a dry chuckle. "Think Ah've had mah' longest day yesterday."

Lyra nodded, and felt her high-strung nerves letting up a bit. Whatever had happened yesterday wasn't so far in the past yet; and she surmised it was easier to correct a fresh problem than an ages-old one.

Still need to know what's wrong though, she reminded herself.

"Feel like talking about it?" she asked as she sat down herself, throwing her back against the door just like the other pony had.

Applejack didn't react well to the invasion of her privacy. Her right eye flashed beneath the rim of her hat, her eyebrows rising in the cover. She was so openly full of suspicion that Lyra could have guessed her next words in advance.

"Now, don't get me wrong Lyra... it was Lyra, right? So don't get me wrong, Ah' ain't meaning no disrespect! But Ah' think this here issue only belongs to us Apples, and us Apples alone."

Bingo, Lyra sucked on her teeth. She had rarely been so depressed by being right.

"Whatever you say. I just meant that you seem to be... well, under the weather," she pushed her head backwards, against the cold paint of the door. "I recall you cheering me up with your news of good fortune the other day... so I thought I could give some of the favour back. I mean... you don't have to talk, okay? I just wanted to say that I'm here and I'm listening. You know, in case."

"Smooth," Snowy purred from Applejack's other side. "I've never heard somepony do such a stealthy guilt-trip before! It's nice to see that despite all our hardships, Master still hasn't lost her edge."

Oi! You're like, really quick to point out my moral failings! Lyra frowned and looked away. I'm only trying to get her to talk - isn't that what a professional shrink would do too?

"The other day... yeah, Ah' remember that," Applejack mused. She pushed her hat back and turned to Lyra - slowly. Very slowly. Threateningly slowly. "Ah' also seem to remember that Ah've only been so lenient with ya' because ya' had a pretty sore streak."

"Pfahahaha!" Lyra hollered loudly. It was the most convincing moment of her act yet - partly because the reaction was almost genuine. "Seriously, can you look at me and say I'm not having a tough time myself?"

"I guess it is lucky that Master skipped bathing for the last few days," Snowy scratched her head, making her translucent mane draw complex patterns over her neck. "Master's current looks will make that excuse very convincing indeed."

Oiii! You just called me a tramp! You totally called me a tramp just now! Don't do that! Not even when you're trying to compliment me! Lyra shot an angry glare at the windigo - who, in truth, didn't seem to get her silent messages at all. Also, stop complimenting me about bad things! I'm not feeling good about misleading anypony!

Even so, the ghostly servant had a point. Applejack leaned forward and studied Lyra at leisure... then rubbed her chin with a hoof as she slumped back against the door.

"So where's yer' bandage?"

Lyra snapped her head to the farmmare, unsure if she could believe her ears.

"Don't ya' give me that look." Applejack snorted and dragged her hat over her face. "Ya' could barely walk when we first bumped into each other. Heck, Ah had to get Big Mac carry ya' home! And now yer' walkin' around here, all fine and dandy? No bandage... and not even a scratch? No offence Lyra, but that ain't addin' up real well."

Frowning at the sharp logic an ordinary farm pony had demonstrated, Lyra glimpsed at her right shoulder.

Tsch. Bon was also surprised about this, she reminded herself. In fact, Bon had flat out stated that she had expected Lyra to be in bandages for months. Didn't think my fast recovery would become an issue, of all things!

None of that changed the fact that she needed an excuse - and quickly, at that.

"It still hurts." She grimaced at the apple farmer, her brain boiling as she searched for an injury that didn't leave any outwardly signs. "I've sprained it real badly, you see? It's still not quite okay, either... just because I can walk without bandages doesn't mean I'm totally fine!"

"Oh." Applejack bobbed her head upwards a bit.

"Heck! I have proof if you're being this distrustful," Lyra exploded into an overblown display of rage. "I've been to the doctor with it! You can just ask... ugh, who was there... what was her name... Dash! Yeah, you can just ask Dash about it. She was there too!"

Only after she had said the name did Lyra remember how Dash had departed from Miss Treatment.

She may not appreciate me ratting her out. She rubbed her temple nervously. Oh well - what's done is done...

"Dash... okay, sure, yea'. Ah'll believe ya' - on one condition," Applejack growled and pulled her hat so low that it was practically resting against her muzzle. "Don't mention Dash again, m'kay? We dun' talk 'bout her any more."

That victory didn't net any sense of accomplishment for Lyra. Not when the good news was tampered by such shockingly strange news.

We don't talk about Dash anymore? What? Seriously, just... what?! She screamed internally as she gave an absent-minded nod. Weren't you together in that newspaper photo, all smiling and stuff? Pieces of harmony and whatnot? So didn't you like, know each other? And now you're not talking about her, all of a sudden? Seriously, just what the heck happened?

She couldn't help but feel really worried about that angry remark. It may have been her growing depression, but she had a really bad omen about the way that relationship had soured.

"I'll keep my mouth shut," she stuttered with glassy eyes.

I sure hope I'm not the one at fault for that one...!

"Thanks." Applejack nodded curtly. The move sent her hat tumbling down from her nose, right onto the dusty ground beneath. Applejack didn't even try to catch the runaway garment; she only reached for it once it was firmly on the ground. "And... sorry. 'Am a little on edge today... but Ah' suppose yer' right. Keeping them bad news all bottled up has never helped anypony... maybe talking about it is the right choice."

Lyra forced a smile. She was just a friendly pony helping another's burden by offering an ear! In no way was she a shady mastermind on the verge of breaking down.

"Still, it's kinda hard to say." Applejack giggled with utter anxiety. Even her hoof shook - to the point where she could barely put the hat back onto her head. Her giggling didn't seem to ebb either. She could only regain a more normal voice by taking a few deep breaths, coupled by equally loud exhales.

Then, after what seemed like hours of a tormented pony struggling, she finally blurted it out.

"Lyra, Ah've been... Ah've become a suspect. The Guard says Ah've swindled funds from this 'ere bank."

---

Had she not had fur covering her face, Lyra would have turned whiter than the marble tiles of Canterlot castle.

"The Guard... what?"

"Ya've heard me right. A few officers had paid me a visit yesterday... they inquired about the money Ah've found at home," Applejack explained. Her composure didn't last; her tone was again as shaky as her hooves. She couldn't settle her hat back onto her head either, only fiddling to no avail. "They've told me that they've found a huge discrepancy in the ledgers of the Equestrian Royal Bank... and they thought that case's linked to mine."

Resting her back against the bank door with her eyes closed, Lyra faced a hard decision.

She could either faint or burst into a maniacal laughter.

As it turned out, she had managed to turn a fairly annoying problem into a huge disaster - one which had progressed beyond the scope which she could fix. She had no idea what those ledgers were, but she was fairly certain she had no way to correct them. And even if she could do that, the Guard had also gotten involved already... so there was no way to solve this issue behind the scenes any more.

"Ledgers... I haven't heard of those." Snowy narrowed her eyes as she confirmed Lyra's fears. "It's possible Old Master simply hadn't discussed them. This... this could be bad."

Ahaha, no. There's nothing 'could be' about it. This is already very bad. Lyra clenched her teeth. Sweet Celestia, what have I done?

"But you haven't done anything." She squeezed the words out. It was difficult, having to talk. The voices were drawn out and distant, and her tongue refused to move the way she wanted... it wasn't any fun to talk like that. "What could they be basing this case on...?"

"Not much so far," Applejack sighed. She gave up on the hat; she let it sit on her the way it was, crooked and sideways. "But Ah' can see why them detectives are thinking like that. Ah' mean... ain't no denying Ah've been coming a lot to this bank 'ere! Even Ah' can remember that much. But see, Ah'... Ah' just have no idea why. It's not like Ah've owed them money or anything."

Lyra pulled her head forward and yanked it back, ramming the door with the back of her skull.

"Yeah," she hissed with pain once she was done. "It's not like you did... haha..."

"Yep. Ah' would remember if Ah' had owed these folks anything!" AJ grinned. She was so nervous that she couldn't sit still. She ignored her hat and fiddled with her hooves, looking as if she was solving an invisible puzzle. "If only Ah' could remember why Ah' kept coming here..."

"There's a lesson to be had here." Snowy shook her head and sighed sombrely. "Our scope was too restricted. Next time we erase memories, we need to be extra careful to not leave traces around!"

Just what kind of a moral is that? If abusing a power got somepony in trouble, then you should try and apply even more of it?! Lyra rolled her eyes. She was seriously weighing whether to tell the windigo to shut up... right until the realization dawned on her as well.

Applejack wouldn't have been so torn had nopony remembered her going to the bank so often. The Guard still may have found her, but she could have plausibly denied everything. With no witnesses, with no other evidence, even those ledgers couldn't have been sufficient to cause a pony much grief.

I could have avoided all this, Lyra drew a ragged, shallow breath. I have broken my life just so I could help somepony... and I've screwed that up as well.

"Just mah' luck too, to have this place closed! Can't ask anyone like this," Applejack continued with some nervous head-bobbing and a dejected sigh. "Ah' really wished Ah' could have asked around, too... before them detectives come back to mah farm and threaten me again with two dozen years of jail."

Comments

[Silentwoodfire]

And now we see what those costs are, and why its so important to have good and bad memories.

I do have to ask...JUST how long has this Game Master been apart from society? If he was more current he would be aware that in this time, a musician is a JOB, not just something for kicks like it might've been in a earlier period of their history.

I recall the author mentioning pat of the inspiration for this story. Regretfully I have never seen that source material myself, but I keep soldiering' on