The Time Thief

by Reading4HalfMyLife

Loop 24

It was outside her door, waiting for her; a little ornate wooden box.

Astral had almost missed it, she was planning on teleporting straight into town, but her door had swung open, and she had seen it.

It was no bigger than her hoof and was a deep mahogant color, save for the light sandy brown rectangled on the lid. On the lighter piece of policed wood, was a carving of an infinity symbol.

Kronos' symbol.

Astral's breath caught in her chest as she snatched the box up, looking around frantically for whoever may of have left it there. But the halls were empty.

Retreating back to her room, she opened the box, to find a simple piece of paper, no bigger than a study card, made out of sturdy, writing card. On it, in messy, scrawled handwriting, was absolute nonsense.

R3lvZyBvam8gcGNoIEt6aSByZnIgbWdlIE52bC0KCkt6aSB6ZyBmdncgbmZ3YXUgbHJ6ZyBnYyBxeWw/IEt1YyBzYnYgbWJpIGx5IHlzZT8KCkN6IFFmcmYsIERkb3JnciwKCk9qbyBwY2ggaHpvIEJzcmR3Yj8gS3ZyIFZnY2s/IAoKVXJoIGdlaywgVXJoIGdlaywgVXJoIGdlaywgVXJoIGdlaw==

Her heart sank, and she resisted the urge to rip the paper up into tiny shreds, light the shreds on fire and piss on the ashes. This does tell me something, she reminded herself. Somepony had to put this here, which means somepony is either aware I'm in a time loop, or is the cause of it.

She stuffed the note back in the box, and put it into her saddlebags. Just in case.

---

Astral decided not to teleport into town, as she had to check up on something.

"Hey mom?"

"Good morning Astral" Starlight said, lifting a mug in greeting.

"Did you see anyone enter the castle?" She asked bluntly, ignoring her mom's raised eyebrow and concerned look.

"No, why? Did something happen-" Starlight cut herself off, watching in amazement as her daughter teleported away with a slight pop.

---

"Misty Rose!"

The little white Earth Pony, on her way to school, turned, confused. Standing behind her was Astral Plane, looking frantic and stressed. "Oh, hey Astral" she greeted, walking up to meet her. "What's up?"

The Unicorn gave a bitter laugh, slowly shaking her head. "You have no idea" she said, before unceremoniously thrusting a note at Misty. "What can you tell me about this note?"

Misty leaned back to stare at the small sheet of paper. Slowly, she put it up to her face and sniffed it, before taking a small bite out of it. She examined it for a couple of seconds, before handing it back.

"The writer of the note is panicked and afraid, of something or other. Their writing is messy, but they are writing on quality grade writing paper, suggesting somepony of a high status. I smelled the barest hints of fruit, maybe kiwi's? I dunno, like I said it was pretty faint, but, going by that, this pony works around fruit."

The entire observation was done at rapid fire pace, and all in one breath.

Astral stared at the card, then back at Misty.

"You got all that, from biting and sniffing the card?"

Misty bristled, hearing the incredulity in her tone. Most ponies tended to disbelieve her because she was Blueblood's daughter, forgetting that Pinkie and Blueblood divorced when he cheated on her, and she wanted nothing to do with her so called 'father', or her backstabbing twin.

Putting on her best snobby accent (which she had learned listening to her 'father') she said "the writing at the end of each letter is sloppy, like somepony was in a rush, so they are panicking over something. I bit the card to test to see what grade of paper it was, it was card by the way, a heavy one, usually used by Canterlockians for Wedding Invites. And I smelled it to see if I could get anything off it, and I could; it was faintly fruity."

She rounded the lecture off with a glare, and Astral held up her hooves, intimidated. "Okay, okay, sorry if I sounded suspicious, you're the expert here. I don't suppose the writing means anything to you?"

Misty shook her head. "No, sorry, just a bunch of gobbledygook."

"Right, well, thanks anyway. I'll tell Anarchy you said hi."

---

She tried giving it to her mom, with the same effect; nothing.

Twilight Sparkle was one of the most supremely gifted ponies in the world, and was considered to be a bonafide genius, and she couldn't find anything.

She did, however, uncomfortably point out a very possible theory.

"It's possible the pony sticking you in here is toying with you, trying to drive you up the wall, so to speak."

Seeing her daughter's face, she hurried to add "it's also possible that another, second party is trying to help you, but is scared of getting caught."

"And so they write down nonsense?" Astral asked, scowling.

Twilight shrugged, uncomfortable.

---

Astral sat on her bad, thoughtfully running her hoof over the heavy card as she stared at the wooden box. Who sent her these things? Her eyes kept coming back to Kronos' Symbol on the lid.

Does that mean it's from Kronos? Or somepony who knows Kronos? Was Kronos the one who put her in the loop? Or was she trying to get her out of it?