I open my eyes and I am greeted with a warm sunrise. It runs around the sky like a carefree child, always happy and uncaring. On the horizon is also a small town. It is dotted with several houses, their roofs made of thatch. Near one end of the town a tree stands, but it has windows and a door.
"Next stop Ponyville!" The conductor shouts over the intercom. Several ponies gather up their belongings and exit the train when it pulls to a stop. As I step outside I notice that the weather in this town differs from that of Canterlot. The air here is warmer and it's slightly more humid.
A crowd of ponies rush by and I decide to follow them, passing several buildings on the way. The heat is getting annoying so I stop at the tree and knock on the door.
"Spike! Get the door for me!" A voice yells. The voice is distinctly female. I hear some grumbling and then the door opens. To my surprise it's not a pony that opens the door, but rather it's a dragon. Not just any dragon though, the dragon that opens the door is Spike. I had the job of guarding him for about a week before he left Canterlot. As he looks me over a look of slight recognition crosses his face.
"Aevus! I haven't seen you in like forever." He exclaims. He holds out his claws in a fist and I match his claws with my hoof. He turns around and yells back into the tree. "Twilight! Come here, Commander Aevus is here!" I immediately here hoofs descend down the stairway inside and a lavender mare walks to the door. When she sees me she instantly starts asking questions.
"Are you really Commander Aevus? Why are you here? Did Celestia send you? Is it true that you can use chronomancy?" She drones on and on. Thank Luna that she stopped when a pegasus crashed into the side of her house. I look up to see a light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. She shakes her head and then looks at me.
"Who are you?" She asks. I decide that trying to impress her probably won't work, but I try anyway.
"I am commander Aevus of her Majesty's Royal Solar Guard." I reply. As expected she doesn't react much, only rolling her eyes slightly.
"Well I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria, and future Wonderbolt." She takes off and hovers in the air for a little bit to prove her point. I instantly think of something. This is going to be good.
"So you say your the fastest flyer in Equestria?" I ask, she nods her head in confirmation. "I think I could beat you." She instantly goes on the defensive and Twilight looks at me like I'm crazy.
"Are you kidding me?! You're just a unicorn, and if you think you're so fast race to the center of the town. Now." Dash says in a serious manner. Spike is the only other one that recognizes what I'm doing. Me and Dash line up and Twilight begins to speak.
"Okay, this race will be fair. No hitting, biting or tripping and for the commander no teleporting." Twilight says. A devilish grin spreads across my face as Twilight starts to count.
"Three." Dash spreads her wings and takes a ready stance.
"Two." Dash drags one of her hoof into the ground.
"One." Dash stands completely still.
"GO!" Time freezes around me and I begin to slowly trot to town center, the others frozen behind me. I need to be careful with time frozen, because every action I take spends twice as much energy as usual. When I reach the center of town I teleport a chair and a glass of lemonade. By now I'm completely exhausted so I lay down and take a sip of lemonade before unfreezing time.Three, two, one. Dash comes to a complete stop as she sees me laying in the center of town with lemonade.
"Cheater! Twilight said no teleporting!" Dash screams. Twilight appears besides her with a flash a disapproving look on her face. I allow myself a small snicker. Dash instantly recognizes this and flies up to me. "I don't like when other people cheat, so tell me why you did!"
"One, problem Miss Rainbow Dash, I didn't teleport." I say.
"Then how did you get here so fast?" She retorts flying up to me.
"I simply stopped time, took my time trotting over here, and teleported this chair and lemonade here. Then I sat down and proceeded to watch you fly here. Now if you mind I'm kind of hungry." I reply with a smirk. She gives me a death stare and I burst out laughing. Then, out of nowhere a pink pony pops up next to me.
"Did you say you were hungry?!" I nod and she stuffs a pancake into my mouth, which I chew and swallow. I almost faint as the taste fills my mouth. It's a perfect mix of sweet fluffy pancake and warm apple syrup. The butter is melted perfectly into the pancakes and it ties the whole thing together. "Is it good?" The pink pony asks.
"Good doesn't even begin to describe it. It's like an angel baked it and then dropped it into Equestria. I can't describe it past then without overloading my own brain." I reply. She giggles and holds up a plate of them and I quickly down the whole plate in one bite. Rainbow Dash is still looking at me expectantly.
"So you're telling me that you can stop time?" She asks. I nod as I eat more of the pancakes that the pink pony is providing. Suddenly Dash jumps at me. "Then dodge this!" Time stops again and surprisingly the pink pony doesn't stop. Instead she just gasps and runs off saying something about parties. I decide to teleport Twilight in front of the multicolored projectile. I move out of the way and un pause time.
I laugh as Dash collides with Twilight. Dash just looks around in confusion.
"What just happened?" She asks to nopony in particular.
"Oh I just decided to move Twilight in front of you and see what you did." I say between my laughing. I notice that I'm now covered in sweat and when I stop laughing I start panting. Twilight notices this and decides to go into a lecture. All I heard was 'blah blah blah magic blah blah blah exhaustion blah blah blah Aevus is awesome blah.' When she finishes I'm almost asleep.
"So do either of you know where Sweet Apple Acres is?" I ask. Twilight looks annoyed that I interrupted her and Dash is still clueless as to what happened.
"It's down the road and to the left. Keep going for a while and you'll reach the farm." Twilight responds. I nod and start to walk away, but not before saying one last thing.
"By the way, sorry for breaking your Rainbow Dash." With that I turn and walk down the street.
As I approach the farm I notice that the rows of trees seem to be in bloom. Apples hanging from most of them. An orange mare was standing in front of some of the trees admiring them. I freeze time and sneak up on her, unfreezing time and tapping her on the shoulder. She freaks out and bucks me in the stomach knocking the wind out of me.
"Holy horse apples that hurt." I say as I lay on the ground clutching my stomach. She turns around and looks at me with a questioning stare.
"Why did ya'll sneak up on me?" She asks. Her voice is oddly menacing, almost as menacing as my old captain.
"I thought that Celestia told you I'd be arriving, all I did was tap you on the shoulder, goodness." I reply. The pain in my stomach dissipating. I stand and wobble for a second, but recover quickly. Being in the guard gives you a lot of resistance to pain, especially when I've been stabbed before. Nothing will ever compare to that amount of pain.
"Oh, heh. Sorry 'bout that, ya'll just startled me." She responds nervously, holding out a hoof. "Ah'm mighty sorry that we got off on the wrong hoof, welcome to Sweet Apple Acres. This 'ere is the finest apple orchard in all of Equestria." I match her hoof with my own and she grins. She motions for me to follow her and she walks towards a barn. She opens the doors when we get there and I notice that the back is filled to the brim with buckets of apples.
"This is where ya'll will be stayin' for the night." She says. I nod in response and collapse on a nearby pile of hay. She waves as she exits the barn and I quickly drift to sleep.