Becoming Heartstrings

Day 5

The first thing I noticed when I woke up, was I had somehow managed to find a pillow and attempt to eat it during my sleep. Its kinda funny, I’m not even sure where the pillow had come from. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t there the night before, but then again if I didn’t manage to pull a pillow out of nowhere, I think I’d manage to upset the fabric of the universe somehow.

I removed said pillow from my mouth and tossed it to the side. I’d have to apologise for that as well as for my rotten attitude yesterday. As weird as Lyra was last night with the metal arms and her attitude (my attitude), she was right.

I found Parks in the kitchen after a short search, already dressed in his uniform. He was eating breakfast-some form of cereal.

“Ah, sleeping beauty has finally awoken!” He said to me between bites.

I sighed, and swallowed my non-existent dignity. “Listen Officer Parks, I need to apologise for being rather rude to you yesterday.”

“Oh don’t worry about that. Now, why don’t you tell me why I found you sitting in a pile of trash in an alley. I thought Princess Celestia had called all of you to New York.”

“Well... to be honest, I was heading there with my father. Let me tell you the whole story.” I said, taking a seat on the floor next to him.

I spent the next thirty minutes or so telling him how my last two days had gone, from me falling face first out of my bed, to Lyra appearing in my dreams multiple times. I told him about how my father had turned into that other background character Lyra had called Spectrum. I told him how we had planned on heading to New York together when we started getting chased by that strange old man.

“When he followed us down into that alley, we split up. I went one way, and he went the other, in at attempt to lose him. When I got back out into the street, I circled around the block in an attempt to find my father, but he was gone. With him gone... I felt completely alone. I didn’t travel much before this whole... pony thing, so I had no idea where I was.”

“Last night while I slept, Lyra came to me again and talked some sense into me. I am truly sorry I acted like the way I did.” I said, lowering my head in shame.

He just laughed. “Zeik, don’t worry about that. I’ve had people treat me much worse than that. Lets just say that cops aren’t always everybodys favorite thing to see during the day.”

I couldn’t argue with that. To be honest, cops always made me incredibly nervous. I realize that the police are only around to keep people safe, but something about some random stranger I’ve never met who carries a gun around makes me nervous. Yet here I was today, sitting at the feet of Officer Parks like a lost dog. If I had any dignity left before that, it was definitely gone.

“Anyway, so you say your father was kidnapped. Are you sure?” He asked.

“I had spent about a half hour trying to find him before I eventually gave up. That’s about when you found me sitting in the alley.”

“Alright, well I need to make a missing persons-I mean missing ponies report. I’ll call this into dispatch. In the meantime, your pants are sitting on the counter, though I’m not sure why you had been wearing them to begin with.” Parks said, before reaching for his radio.

“This is Officer Parks reporting in for the day. I’ve got some new information regarding the Lyra case I talked to you about yesterday night.” He said, speaking into the mic. “It turns out we’ve got a missing pony and a kidnapping. There’s another pony named Spectrum.”

He turned to me quick. “Can you describe this Spectrum pony?”

“He’s WAS my father, but he’s got black hair, lighter purple fur and a rainbow for a cutie mark. He’s a pegasus.”

Parks turned and relayed the information back to whoever he was talking too on the radio. “This Spectrum was reported kidnapped in back of an alley when the two ponies had noticed they had been followed. Report all that back to the station and let me know if you guys find anything. I’m gonna take Lyra out and see if we can’t find some clues.”

• Roger- Came a static voice back over his radio.

He turned back to me. “Listen Ly... Zeik. I want you to know, that I WILL find your father. We’ll find him and make whoever kidnapped him pay. This I promise you.”

“Thank you for your help Officer parks.” I said, extending a hoof. He hesitated for a moment before giving me a fistbump. I guess they’re actually called Brohoofs, or something. I’m not really sure what you call it when one has hands and the other doesn’t. Oh well.

He mumbled under his breath about giving Lyra brohoof followed by a little laugh. I’m pretty sure he was trying his best to try hide his fanboy side, but he wasn’t doing that great of a job. Or maybe Lyra just has good hearing. Yeah, probably that.

Anyway, the rest of the morning consisted of me watching Officer Parks go through his average morning routine while I slapped my fashionable pants back on. Something about wearing them just made me feel better.

Eventually we stepped outside in world again and got into the mans car. At this point, I had managed to get in and out of vehicles without falling on my face.

“Alright Zeik, we’re gonna head off to the same alley I found you in before in an attempt to find out where your father was taken. Maybe we can find some clues.”

“That sounds like as good of plan as any Parks. The sooner we find my father the better.”

“So, while we drive, do you wanna talk about anything? Got anything on your mind?” Parks asked me.

“What? Aside from my missing father? Well... Do you know what its like to have two voices in your head?” I asked him.

“I can’t honestly say that I have, sorry.”

Stupid question. “Yeah I guess you wouldn’t. Normal people don’t wake up mashed into somebody elses body.”

“You know, I gotta ask you Zeik. What’s it like?” He asked me,  enthusiastically. His brony was showing again.

“What, being this?” I asked, gesturing to all of me. “To be completely honest? Hell. Lyra is constantly talking to me in my head, I had to completely relearn how to walk, and now I’ve been dragged into some world wide problem that until two days ago I was perfectly content ignoring.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I’ve always kinda wondered what it would be like, but now that its actually happening to people, it doesn't seem to be as exciting as glorified as the rest of the bronies I know had been making it out to be these last few years.”

“You remember the saying, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got till its gone?’ Parks? I REALLY miss my thumbs.” I replied, look down at my stumps for hooves.

“Yeah but Zeik, you’ve got magic now! You can do... just about anything if you put your mind too it.”

I just laughed. “Yeah, magic I can’t even control. Lyra does all of that for me. However, she does do what I ask her to do. Most of the time anyways. To be completely honest, I always wanted to be a pegasus. Flying has always been a dream for me.”

We spent the rest of the ride in relative quiet while we drove to the location. It didn’t take long, he didn’t live that far away.

When we arrived, Parks told me to retrace my steps from the other night. I showed him hoof step for hoof step what had happened. I described to the best of my ability what I had done and my scramble to find my father afterwards.

“Alright, this should be pretty simple.” Parks told me. “There are camera’s all over the place near this particular section of the city. All we really should have to do is find one of the camera’s that has a good shot of your father and the kidnapper.” He said, as we walked back towards his police car.  “If he vanished as fast as you said, he must have used a car. If that’s the case, we can simply track the make and model and find him pretty quick.”

“Hopefully it’ll be that simple, but somehow I doubt it.” I replied back to him.

“We need to make a stop at the local station so I can report our findings. I’m not going to leave you alone with ponynappings happening, so I’m afraid you're gonna have to stick with me for a little while longer.” He said.

“Listen Parks, you are the best shot of good luck I’ve had in awhile. Besides, I’d go to hell and back to find my father and bring him back.” I replied back to him.

We jumped back into Officer parks police car and we drove off towards the station. The station itself was a little farther off than the ride to the scene itself. During the drive, he asked Lyra a few questions, which meant I was a middle man of sorts since she couldn’t talk directly. Not normally anyways.

Finally after about thirty minutes we had arrived. He lead me inside the station where he asked me to wait in the front. Apparently they didn’t like having non-personal in the back. So, I waited. And waited. And kept waiting.

This part of the day kinda sucked. Parks was looking over all the tapes that they had access too in that part of the city, so I was in there for the long haul while we waited. I was having a little conversation with Lyra the entire time, so it wasn't too bad, although I probably looked pretty crazy just staring off into nothingness for hours on end. Actually, I’m pretty sure some of the cops and other employees who were coming in and out of the building were more than a little surprised to see a pony sitting there, staring off into nothingness.

Lyra and I had been talking about random things. She’d ask me questions about things that humans do, I’d ask her about equestria things. It got to the point where we started telling each other funny stories, which of course would make me burst out laughing. Got all kinds of funny looks for that.

Anyway what seemed like an eternity later, Parks returned with some sorta  good news. “Listen Zeik, I’ve been through all the tapes in the area. Turns out we did get one good shot of a man dragging an knocked out pony into the van from that intersection. I’m 100% certain it was your father, he matched your description perfectly.”

“The down side is, while we’ve got a make and model, it’ll still take a day or so to track him down. I’ve got a warrant out for the vehicle and sent it to all of our patrolling officers. If anybody sees the van, we’ll know about it.”

“Thank you again for your help Parks.”

“Like I said, I’m just doing my job as a cop. Besides, I’ve wanted to hang out with one of you ponies since this whole thing started, so I’m more then willing to lend a hand.” Parks said to me.

“Listen, I’m still not too keen on leaving you out and about, so would you mind terrible staying with me for the duration of the investigation?” He asked.

Hmmm...... Go get lost in a city with some crazy out there kidnapping ponies or sleep in a cops house. Hard choice.

Don’t think I won’t carry out my threat from earlier if you do something stupid and mess this up.

Easy Lyra it was a joke.

“I think I’ll take you up on that offer. I don’t have a better place to go anyway.” I said, shaking his hand. “Besides, I’m NOT leaving till I find my father and give Dr. Creepy a bit of payback. Nothing stands in the way of the Hassler family.”

“Hassler? Is that your last name then?” He asked

“You heard NOTHING.”

Nice job.