After a few minutes of shock and confusion, I finally realized what had happened…
I stopped the freaking time! I STOPPED THE TIME AROUND ME!
It was great and horrible altogether. I didn't know what was going to happen, and I didn't understand how I was still alive. I can't breathe when I stop time for a quarter, but I easily could when it's fully stopped? Even for me, it didn't make much sense, but it was what it was.
Finally, I decided to get up and look around. Everything wasn't as it was before. All the creatures frozen in time were panicking, "Are they freaking out because of… me?". But one of them wasn't. It was Ter, stopped while constructing a new spell for me. I hoped that I would be capable of helping her, but at that moment, I wasn't sure if I would be able to help myself.
I decided to inspect myself. Why was I still alive, breathing and walking? I was moving faster than light, but I was able to see; why? There were so many questions, but no one to answer me.
Then I looked up. Twilight leaned above me with a worried face, her horn glowing, eyes squinting, her muzzle lightened up by a bright pink light. I wasn't able to locate the source of that pink light.
My body was filled with pain. Every move was bringing more of it. The pain wasn't the result of me stopping the time; it was the result of great exhaustion. My physical, magical and psychological states required recovery. That gave me an idea of what to do.
The first order of business was sleep; I desperately needed it. My mind was hardly able to think and my body to move.
I barely stood up when the thunder of pain ran through my body. I hardly was able to stand. Where do I go? Maybe I should lay just here? No. Those ponies… What if something happens to them or me? I need to find a better and more comfortable place.
As a result, I decided to go backstage. It still was uncomfortable, but it was a little bit better. However, it wasn’t great enough.
The best decision was to locate keys to that room Sapphire gave us. But I didn’t know where the keys or Sapphire were. She wasn’t near Ter…
They were in her cabinet before, maybe I should look there?
With nothing better to do, I started walking in the direction where Sapphire led Ter before.
And there it was — my luck! I found an almost shut door. I carefully opened it and inside was a small comfortable room. It also was carved as the whole building.
That room was comfortable, but there was no place to sleep, and I couldn’t close it. And again, the world was generous. Keychain laid right in the center of the table. It looked suspicious, but I was too tired to think about it.
I took the keys with my mouth, as my magic wasn’t working, and went right to that room. It easily unlocked, and I was greeted by a familiar scene. A wall pierced by a pencil and bag with a print of my head on it.
It is much better! I closed the room and took a pose of an embryo. Sweet-sweet dreams.
Some... time? I don’t know how it works now. Technically it wasn’t even a second.
I wasn’t fully rested, but I was too tired to sleep more.
Ok! Next for the plan, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” When It all began?!
LETTER! Of course. I need to find that letter. It’s supposed to be still laying on the stage.
And as I expected, the letter was on stage, facing up with its text. But something unexpected happened when I picked it up.
The stage beneath the letter was left dark. Some places still were giving off the light, but the center was completely black. The light source was right above me, but it didn’t do anything.
It was really weird and wrong, but I couldn’t do anything on that matter. Neither was I smart enough to understand “What the hay is that?!”
I looked at the letter. On one side it was okay. But on the other, it was as black as the floor it was laying on. This darkness made it impossible to read the other side of the letter.
With nothing better to do, I began reading what I could and quickly noticed that it was different.
“Well, Hello there. Now we finally can “talk” normally. As you already noticed, the world is stopped. You stopped it. And you probably tried and failed to make it move again. It’s no wonder, you can’t.
But there is still a way to make things as they “used to be.” You will have to find it on your own. For the "present", I can give you a little tip. Begin your searching in Celestia’s tower.
And when the time comes, we will meet on the Moon.
— M.W.”
With no understanding of how or when I decided to look around and observe what was different.
The first thing I noticed was light. All light was abnormal. It seemed ok until I tried to look under something, which led to total darkness underneath the object. I didn’t have many ideas how it was working, but it looked like the light just froze with time and I only could see objects that were lit up before I stopped it.
The second thing I noticed was sound, or its absence. I could hear nothing. And I have no idea why I didn’t notice it earlier… Maybe I just got used to it? Spending all my time alone in my home…
Besides the weird light thing, everything seemed to work like I just slowed the time. I could take an object and place it in the air and it would stay there like there is no gravity, yet, there was gravity for me, my body, and my stuff…
And it was the moment that I realized that I didn’t have anything with me! Nothing at all!
I started panicking. Why?! What?! How?! I didn’t know what to do. The only ideas I had were to try to unfreeze the time, which didn’t work (like that guy in the letter said), and to follow the advice from the letter.
With nothing better to do, I decided to breach a few dozen laws by breaking into the royal castle and going to Celestia’s Tower. But before, I decided to take a few things from that place, “even frozen in time somethings are helpful!”, except there was almost nothing useful…
What I managed to take were someone’s saddlebags (It isn't stealing if they were left unattended. Few silver plates from the cafeteria (WHY SAPPHIRE DIDN’T TELL ME THERE WAS A CAFETERIA?!). A little bit of food, I hoped I could eat it or else I would die. And a pen I found on the floor (I hate those who litter, but at least I had a pen now.).
On the way out, I realized that Ter maybe was able to create a spell, but all my hope was broken when I approached her. It seemed that I stopped time in the worst possible moment, as everything around Ter was so illuminated by her horn that I wasn’t able to read anything she wrote.
“Don’t worry, friend, I promised you that I will save you… So I will save you!” weirdly(or not), everything I declared was impossible to hear.
The road from the higher mountain district to the royal palace wasn’t long, however, it took me a long time, as I stopped it when in the early sunrise and the mountain was blocking most of the light. The only help there was artificial magical light, but still, there were few places where I had to go where it was dim… I even rammed into someone who was standing in the darkness.
Despite all my troubles and the fear of the dark, I made it to the royal castle. I don’t know how much time it took, but it wasn't important at that moment, what mattered was that I had no idea about how to get into the tower.
At the moment I stopped time, the castle was already sealed off for the public. And the worst of all, for me, was that all windows and doors were closed.
I was in a panic. I tried to break a window, but it didn’t budge. All doors I tried were closed, nothing seemed to be working.
But then I looked high above. I saw a body stuck in the window. And weirdly enough that half of the body was hanging out from it. It seemed that the window was broken earlier.
Overwhelmed with hope, I remembered an old trick with paper plates. Luckily for me, I took two plates from the cafeteria, which allowed me to use them as stairs… And without magic it was hard. I had to use my hooves, and it was almost impossible.
Put a plate then put another plate to form a two-step ladder. When I am on the second step, use hooves to pick up the first plate and place it higher. By the time-freezing, plates would freeze in space… In the concept, it sounds easy. In reality… It took me too much time (at least I had that time.). (And I had no idea how that was working! I mean, I still felt gravity!).
Throughout struggles and pain, I made it into the open window. Carefully pushing away glass in the window and dragging the body of that pony inside. I owned it to that pony who broke in earlier.
Corridors were filled with cheerful light and bouquets of lavender.
From that point, I was freely able to navigate inside the castle, which meant that every door was open. Why would it be? Why wasn’t it filled with guards at every corner (who were there to arrest me instantly)?
When I found the main entrance, I easily found my way to Celestia’s Tower, as there were two marked arrows. One marked with the sun, the other with the moon.
Celestia’s Tower was the highest thing in the whole city (even higher than the statue of Stygian and co.), and the way up there was rather long. The view from there was already worth it! I could see the city and more! I even could recognize outlines of Ponyville. My mom and dad were there… frozen forever if I don’t find a way to restore everything.
When I finally made it to the top of the tower, I saw a dilapidated wooden door. It seemed like this place was badly looked after, which was wrong… It is the tower of the previous ruler of Equestria! This tower represents her closeness to the sun and her majesty! This place should look better than Canterlot itself!
Easily, I broke down the rotten door. Inside was some kind of house. Beds, kitchen, little library, couch, and even a toilet! All of this in one little room! Even if it was cramped, it was somehow inviting…
The room looked ancient, not as old as its entrance door, but older than me. It was clean and comfy, but very empty. No one was inside. Only a suspicious journal laying on a table.
Luckily for me, the journal was opened, but I only could see its last written page.
I finally found an entrance! She is definitely keeping her there along with many others… Today will be the day of revelation. I told her the location of that “Ac'' magic I located, and while she was dealing with a time paradox created by a pony, I will sneak into the dungeon and free her… I wrote down everycreature I found for her on a little list, along with where I found them… if everything goes how I planned it, then I will be able to restore them… but if I fail… sooner or later, someone will find this journal… She doesn’t know about that list, neither she understands where to look for them, it will take her a long time to locate them herself… I have to succeed!
In those words, writing suddenly ended, no ending, no exodus… “Thanks for the tip! Now I have more questions…”
Alongside a journal, there were a few torn pages. It consisted of names, abilities, and places of living.
Looking through the only page, I was able to see, I found something interesting. Besides many different magical abilities, I never heard about things like “Transformiguration,” or “Crystalification,” I found something that caught my eyes.
“Name: Brake Long. Abilities: Time. Location of living: Canterlot. Starswirl st 45.”
“Name: Criys Bowler. Abilities: Time. Location of living: Crystal Empire. 4th dist. 2b”
I found a clue. At least I found what to do next… Who can help me to restore the time like other time-mages?! Well… stuff I can find in their places at least… Will it be counted as burglary?
Turns out that searching for the street in a city I don’t know, with terrible lighting and with a constant scare of monsters in the dark, takes a lot of time. And it probably was easier to find a city map than just wander randomly... If I knew where to seek it…
And the most reasonable place where a map could be (and the closest one I could think of) was the Royal Library. I was filled with hope that they would have it, but before that, I had to manage to get into the library.
For the luck of the world… The way to the library was marked by the double star with four or five little stars around it. It was a weird version of Princess Twilight cutie mark.
When I finally entered the library, its size shocked me. I even could say that it was bigger than the build I was in, or at least close to its size, which made me ask a question, ”How?!”
After a “bit” of time and a few books that I wasn’t able to read, I found an old and very expensive map made a few days after the coronation of Princess Twilight. Under the map was written that it was a present made by new Changelings as a present for their allies.
The map was fully hoof-made, and it was very big. It was taking the whole wall only for Canterlot alone and the full map had all of Equestria and some lands beyond it. The best thing about it, it didn’t just show cities and other stuff, it showed stuff inside the cities!
By decree of the princess, the map was cut into many bits and sent around the Equestria. Each city, town, etc. had the map of their place alongside a piece of something. Canterlot has a piece of itself and a piece with a changeling kingdom.
It was hard to look at that old map, but it was all I had. At first, I resisted the urge to rip it off the wall, as it was a “Priceless artifact of the past,” but after a painful hour, I could not stand looking at it.
Impulsively I pulled the map, and it fell off the wall, leaving a few ragged pieces hanging.
It is okay as long as no one knows it was me…
With a new fear, I quickly began looking through the map. Canterlot was a pretty big place, which was going underground; and if that guy lived down there, I won’t be able to find his place on this map.
I looked through the map a few times. Each new time I was scared more and more… But I calmed down, as I finally found the correct place.
Starswirl street. Located a few streets away from the palace… I even ran through it when I was on my way to the castle…
It was easy to find it, but it was hard to get in. House wasn't big. In the window, it looked trashed like mine. From the outside, the house was outstanding. It was old and required capital repairs.
And it was about to require a new window. What is the point of trying to not mess around if time stopped and I already damaged a priceless artifact?
Carefully, after a few attempts of trying to throw a stone with my mouth, I was able to shatter the window. Then I used another stone to clear the window frame from broken glass that was stuck in space.
Inside was dark. Literally. I could barely see, thanks to dusty windows. But it was about to get worse. The sole thing I was able to find was a note to someone left on a table. The table was right under the window.
The note stated something about a new lab, and that the person won't appear here for a few days, and if you want to find him, he will probably be in the lab. With an address…
The address was underground, inside the mountain. And the only thing I knew was one location of the staircase going down.
The closest entrance to me was the one inside Royal castle, I discovered it while I was looking for the library. It seemed that it was created out of catacombs.
I had to go back to the castle, and I was stupid enough not to open the door from inside of the palace… But then I remembered that some magic still works and it was worth an attempt to try to teleport up there…
It didn’t go as planned. My horn only gave out a few sparks and stopped working at all. And that meant I had to climb to the window again…
After another heap of time, I lost for nothing; I was in.
A way down was opened, and it was easy to get inside. But it was only the beginning of the road. There was a staircase going way down, right beneath the mountain and a bit lower.
It took me a long time, but I finally was down there. After a few corridors, I found myself in front of the beautiful underground city.
Unlike Canterlot above, here, lights were almost everywhere. Tall buildings were rising to the top of the “cave.” Many different styles and various moods. I didn’t comprehend it. Why spend money on these, when you can do almost anything? Cure pony-pox, help the poor, improve relations with abroad. Why spend it on fancy decor?
The place I was searching for was a lab. And by the address I found there, it looked like buildings here were built in circles. And the place I was looking was on the one hundred-forty-second circle.
Later, it turned out it was the edge of this “cave.”
The stairs from the catacombs were leading straight to the center. It was the place this city all began.
The few inner circles were the property of Princess Twilight. They were fancy-schmancy with a lot of money spent on them. But unlike the place, as Ter said “Built for normal ponies to look at, to inspire…”, this place was built only for the eyes of those, who don’t care about it… Ponies like me?
Am I the rich fancy-pants type of pony? Why can’t I understand it? Am I the monster in this picture? There must be something that I am missing… something logical that explains it. Why magic makes much more sense to me…
What if I am just unique? That could explain why art doesn’t affect me… But it will be just stupid… Maybe my anti-social life is the main reason? What if art isn’t something that is pictured or written, what if art is those emotions put into it? Emotions that I just can’t feel due to lack of sociality.
That was the best way I could explain it then. The best that cogs in my little brain gave me.
At the same time, I was thinking about art; I was walking and looking around. I wasn’t focused on the buildings around me as much as I was concentrated on my thoughts, but I still was able to notice that the further I was moving from the center, the cheaper and less decorated buildings were. And it made me feel a little bit down.
Everything around was slowly turning gray.
After "ten" or so minutes of the trot, I got outside, the biggest circle there was, and for my luck, I was kinda close to the correct place. And let me say, that was the weirdest structure of the city I ever saw (not like I saw many cities). It likely was caused due to a lack of planning, as they didn't plan to make this place bigger, but the real reasons aren't known to me.
When I finally made it to the correct place, I was, I was stunned! The lab was in conditions worse than… than… worse than the ruins of that weird ruins of the ancient library in Ponyville.
If time wasn't static, I would never go to that place. Still, I was terrified of what could be inside.
He is also (or was?) a time-mage, who has the full lab! What if there is nothing inside that can help me? But how can it help me?
I still didn't know what I was looking for, or why am I doing this. The first thought that was coming to my mind was "I am doing this to restore the time!", but what if it is just a simple lie? I can believe I was doing it because I didn't have anything else to do; if I decided to reject the progress, I would simply get bored.
Full of fear, hope, and a little bit tired I entered the old lab.
After “some” amount of time, I was inside.
After a brief search, I came to the sad realization, that it wasn’t what I was looking for.
It was a completely normal laboratory. Few rooms with special equipment, old and dusty notepads, rest, and recreational room. All of them were simply plain. Nothing that looked extraordinary.
And with all of my sadness, I began walking towards the exit, when I found a room I missed. It would be completely ignored by me, but the sign on the door took my attention.
Brake Long. T.D.
With a little bit of hope that was left in me, I decided to enter inside.
At the first glance, it was a basic cabinet, similar to the one that mare named Sapphire. It was messy like someone intentionally threw all the stuff around, but one place was left untouched, it was a bookcase and books in it.
That bookcase was the first thing I looked through and quickly made an interesting revelation.
THE BOOKCASE WASN’T FROZEN IN TIME!
It gave me hope, and I began picking and touching books, and even after I put them down, they still would stay unfrozen! It was the best thing that happened to me since I made a friend!
And then, I pulled one particular book, and the whole bookcase slid and revealed a secret room. It wasn’t big, and it was in almost perfect condition. There were few tables with unknown to me stuff and a big bookcase with hoof-written books. That bookcase was titled “Discoveries.”
But when I picked up a book, which also was unfrozen, inside it was written in a weird language.
Besides those weird devices, a table with a book took my attention. That book, unlike others, was written in Equestrian. It wasn’t big, neither was it long, only one page.
After our experiments, I discovered something that might be extremely important for you to read. I sent you a copy of a book where I wrote about it.
Yes. I got it, but what is it about?
Can’t tell, you know, that someone else can intercept.
I understand. I will read it and we can talk about it at the next meeting.
Good. By the way, I heard about a paradox there, was that you?
Kinda. I found someone, who can help us with our enemy, and she told me to use a particular spell on a specific crystal. It was unexpected, but it did the trick.
Hmm… A new ally? I hope you know what you are doing. Ok. That is all. We can’t keep this link any longer. I will give you another book when we meet, as usual.
Yes. And I tested those spells and that thing, it works!
That is it. I am breaking the link. Till the next meeting.
Turned out that it was some kind of conversation between two ponies? Or someone who was just insane? But it wasn’t the point.
The point was, that those two ponies knew about time magic and experimented with it. And I could see with my own eyes, that those experiments were successful.
And it gave me a new course. I would need to go to that other mage. And judging by their texts and crystals on those tables around me, I was pretty sure that he was in the Crystal Empire. And that note from Celestia Tower only strengthened it.