melodiesoflife | Hidden Truth [Log]

What: A log for everyone to gain the information in the Hidden Truth video tape.
Where: The Observatory.

There had been a flurry of letters sent out from Jack and Chiaki, first to Zelda to ask to borrow the Observatory, and then to every Hero of Light, alerting them that they had uncovered some intelligence received in the Heran Empire before the Capital had fallen to Crystal, and that everyone needed to see it immediately.

Jack, Chiaki, and a few others brought in a screen connected to a machine that some would recognize as a VCR. "With our peace mission to the Imperial Capital over Christmas, we returned with a recording made on 20th-century Earth technology, the kind that doesn't have an analogue on Crystallis. It took us time to build a machine to be able to play it. This information comes from Kalki, recorded what appears to be years ago. We obtained it from the Imperial Spy, Jenni. As of right now, we still have no reason to believe that Kalki is alive. But this comes from her, and I apologize to everyone who might be upset by seeing her again."

With that, Jack plays the recording. He stands by the screen and repeats the words for everyone to hear, for those who cannot understand English. Since Kalki's first words are to explain why she is recording it this way, it makes sense why he has to do this. He keeps his own emotions in check throughout, until the explanation of the Bard song that everyone gets to hear. That seems to upset Jack.

Once the recording is over, Jack pauses. "We will need some help from any other English speakers to create a written transcript of the recording so that anyone can access this information at any time. The tape and player will remain here for any Heroes to review. We ask that you please be careful with the machine."

Finally, Jack sits down to let the room descend into the inevitable chaos.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's where my confusion comes in. We have the Time Mage job and we also went back in time. Was that caused by tapping into the Rift?" And Twilight was thinking about the same thing she was, but maybe for not the same reasons.

"When the other Heroes were here, one of them was someone from my home. But...his history was different than the one I remember. He was pulled from a different dimension but not really from too different of a time."

So, could that vision have been a "what if"? And could that be something Kalki was mistakenly going by? After all, she was the one who had sent them back in time in the first place--perhaps thinking that future was absolute and couldn't be changed? And they were drawing closer to that time where everything began to change.

"Neither do I."

"We... just might be tapping into the Rift." Twilight said. "Now, I have to wonder about what exactly it does... However, your friend..."

Okay, now you got Twilight thinking. "If it wasn't for an incident that happened back home, I would think that sort of thing wasn't possible, but... ah, hold on. I'm going to need something to show this because I'm certain it'll go over your head. Or anypony else's if they're listening."

It takes a moment, but Twilight returns with some paper and a bunch of pens. And as she talks to Sheena, she starts to draw a little crudely, numbering the pages as she did.

"Before, I thought time travel wasn't entirely possible. Nothing but perhaps a simple loop. I saw myself from the future, but she could only tell me something real fast before disappearing. In hindsight, it was my fault for not listening and not not worrying in the first place."

As she did that, she drew a picture of herself and her eyepatch-wearing, crazy-maned self with two arrows circling around.

"But, there was another time travel spell that could make further, even devastating changes. A unicorn named Starlight Glimmer found one in an attempt to get back at me and my friends for ruining a plot of hers. She tried to interrupt a specific moment in our lives and, in doing so, turned our world into one of disaster."

With that, Twilight began making multiple sketches of angry unicorn interrupting the Sonic Rainboom and causing the various threats to Equestria - Lord Sombra, the Changelings, Nightmare Moon, Tirek, Discord and the Flim-Flam Brothers - to be the end result before ending with a barren wasteland.

"I was able to stop her, but it's highly possible that all of those timelines exist as a different dimension in some sort, but I'm not too keen on checking it out. It's highly possible that your friend came from something like that - a timeline where something was altered so that things happened different."

And now, Twilight's beginning to ponder about the here and now with Crystallis.

"But, now that makes me wonder about this world. They say that what we go through is a cycle. A continuous one. What if it isn't a cycle of birth, life and death, but instead a reboot? I wasn't here for that incident, but I heard that someone tried to stop Palitutu when everyone was sent back in time, but couldn't because altering the timeline would put someone into Crystal Stasis. Of course, there's going to be some things that need to happen, but I have a feeling that we'll be repeating some of the things that went wrong if we followed through with some suggestions..."

Aaaaaand Twilight came to a stop, grinning sheepishly as she giggled. "Sorry, I guess I got too caught up in all of this."

Wow. Gee, thanks Twilight. Sheena knew she wasn't too bright, but you didn't have to rub it in...

Still, the ninja watched as the pony spoke and drew at the same time, her eyes widening at the second group of pictures. Reaching out, she slid the finished pictures towards herself and stared at it as she spoke to Twilight.

"One incident. That one that had an impact on all of you. The one that changed everything." She was talking slowly, gathering her thoughts before turning to her friend.

"Twilight, you're probably right about Zelos, since we have different memories, but doesn't this strike you as familiar? Not because you went through it at home, but because of that vision?"

Are they now caught up in heading in that direction thanks to Kalki and this whole recording?

Sorry, Twilight's still learning after all of this time. Old habits are hard to kill. However, hearing what Sheena said did get her thinking.

"Hmm... that's... that's disturbing." Twilight admitted. "But, at the same time, it doesn't feel like there's the air of despair coming in here, just that Kalki's... well... nuts."

She let out a sigh as she thought about this. "The only thing I have a problem with this is that Kalki is trying to push us in that direction. That she gave up after one try and decided to go the destructive route."

She looked up, an concerned look on her face. "My only problem is that, if we try anything here, we'll have everyone else trying to play it safe..."

So was Sheena; she just didn't think she was capable of it. She just saw things a certain way, using common sense and her emotions and experiences guide her.

Chuckling, she nods. "I have to agree. And not just about her not being all there. Why is she pushing for this? To erase her mistakes? To cover something up? What exactly did she learn from that one attempt that made her decide it wasn't worth trying again from a different angle?"

The ninja's brows creased together. "I'm not sure what you mean. Play it safe as in follow this? Or play it safe as in not doing anything at all?"

"I hate to say it, but I mean 'not doing anything at all'." Twilight admitted. "It's a very cynical point of view to really think, but seriously, I've heard how the explorers of the Tower argued over a button."

"Heard" as in 'having Sonic complain endlessly over "overprotective people with no sense of adventure"'. Twilight let out a sigh and shook her head.

"I understand the need for caution, but at the same time nothing really gets done without taking a few risks."

Sheena was quiet for a moment. "Sometimes not doing anything at all is tougher than you might imagine, Twilight." Especially for someone who wants to get out there and do something. Sighing, she nodded.

"I was one of the ones who argued to not push the button. It was for a barrier that no one knew anything about. I opted to not turn the barrier off because if it was the one thing that kept the Calamity at bay, then the tower is the only place with the answers." She tilted her head. "Did whoever tell you this also tell you the previous Heroes left us a note wishing us better luck than them? That they hoped we find the answer?"

Shaking her head, Sheena met her friend's gaze. "Twilight, if it were you, would you have wanted to risk losing what is possibly the only source of information we have?"

Hidden Truth [Log]

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