//------------------------------// // Memories Resurfaced // Story: The Passage of Time // by MasterFrasca //------------------------------// My heart skipped a beat and my mind momentarily stuttered as a cold shiver ran down my spine, the pricks of red seeming to almost float and bounce toward me in the deafening silence. I took a step back, the tiny eyes increasing as every moment passed, as if they were multiplying inside their shadow cloud that was careening toward me. I instantly remembered the fake Twilight’s words, and my mind jumped into overdrive. I turned to my left to see if I could sprint back the way I came, but there in front of me was something that could not have possibly been there before. A brick wall sat not two feet from me, the top of which extended into the red fog above, not seeming to end. My heart sped up, adrenaline now coursing through my body. I started hyperventilating, taking a few steps back. “No... no, that can’t be right,” I whispered, noticing the black mass had stopped in its tracks, the red eyes multiplying by the second. Sweat broke out on my forehead as I quickly turned around, hoping to get out of there. I had not taken two steps when I tried to stop myself, tripping on my own hooves and smashing into yet another brick wall, directly opposite the other, seeming to extend into the sky forever as well. I pushed myself to my hooves, wincing at a pain in my front left leg. I had probably torn something if not broken a bone. Had I been a pegasus, this probably wouldn’t have been a problem, as I could just use my wings to fly away from the mass of black, but I was a unicorn, and an inexperienced injured one at that. I needed to get out of there while the mass was occupied with whatever it was doing. I didn’t want to stick around while I had the upper hoof, so I turned to the street opposite the swirling fog and thanked Celestia that this one wasn’t blocked off by yet another wall. Looking behind me I saw that the horde of creatures was now on the move again, their smoky figures seeming to silently glide towards me. I took a quick step, trying to gallop out of there when a burning pain shot through my front left hoof. I yelped as I tried to yank my leg back, not realizing that most of my weight was already on it. I tumbled down as my hoof buckled, smashing my head against the hard dirt and biting into my tongue. I grunted in pain as I lay still for a moment, whimpering and trying not to black out. I took a sharp breath and rolled over, blood dripping out of my mouth. A burning sensation filled my jaw, overpowering the pain in my leg. I felt like a log that was being sent through a chipper. Get up now! I mentally screamed at my limbs, rolling back onto my stomach. I put my weight on my right hoof, careful not to collapse again as the dark horde careened towards me. I spat out some more blood, the burning sensation not getting any better, and grunted as I pushed myself shakily to my hooves. I took a step forward with my left hoof, gritting my teeth and grunting through my clenched jaw as another bolt of pain shot up my leg, reminding me that there was indeed something wrong with one of the joints. I quickly lurched forward, putting my weight back on my right hoof to ease the pain when I looked back to notice the horde wasn’t going to stop this time and courteously wait for me to recuperate. Feeling hopeless, I started slowly limping down the street, the burning sensation in my mouth slowly being replaced by a puffy numb sensation. Step after step I went, but after a few brutal lurches, the pain resided and a numbness replaced it. It felt as If I were walking with a peg-leg, but it was better than having to give a yelp every time I took a step. With a little more certainty in my step, I trudged forward, picking up my pace until I was half-limping and half-galloping down the street. A small smile crept up on my face as I realized I might still have a chance of getting out of here alive after all. A glance back shattered that confidence as I saw that while I was was gaining speed, so was the cold, dark mass of glowing eyes that followed in my wake. “You can make it, Colgate.” A voice whispered in my ear, startling me and causing me to stumble a few steps, slowing my gait slightly. “No keep running!” the whisper encouraged, a nervous tone present in its voice. “You can’t slow down now!” I took a few awkward steps before breaking out once again into my injured gallop. “Who is this,” I managed to say between breaths and through my injured tongue, which had finally stopped oozing blood. “How do you know who I am?” “Colgate, it’s me,” the whisper said. I couldn’t recognize the voice at all, but then it continued, “It’s Twilight.” “TWILIGHT?!” I shouted, almost stopping before I realized that the horde was still behind me and the cottages only kept repeating as I frantically ran down the nonsensical, never-ending street. The whisper didn’t sound like her, but with my heart pounding and the horde gaining, I had no time to question the legitimacy of this Twilight. “How do you know where I am?” “I’m casting a location spell as well as a mind-transference spell. Those things are holding me hostage in the Golden Oaks Library. Come help!” the whisper seemed to plead to me. “How are you casting spells?” I asked, my breath running short. I couldn’t keep this pace up much longer. “I couldn’t cast–” I started, taking a huge breath as my lungs screaming for air, “couldn’t cast anything.” “I don’t know, but we need to get you out of there.” “How are you going to get me out of this, I’ve been running and limping down this street for a while, and it never seems to end!” “It never will” “What?!” I shouted, angry and confused at the thought of a street that would literally never end. “What do you mean ‘it never will.’ Does this street run across the entire world or something?” “No, in fact it only runs the distance of about one block,” Twilight’s whisper told me. “You’re stuck in what essentially is an infinite loop. When you run the block, you get magically transported unknowingly and silently back to the beginning. You’ve been running across the same strip of road for a couple minutes now. The houses around you look identical because they are identical. The mechanics of a spell like this are actually quite simple to produce. It would only take a bit of power mixed with the right–” “Twilight!” I shouted, cutting her off before she got too complicated and long-winded. “We can do a history on spells later. Right now, I just want you to get me out of here before I become a dead mare! Where should I go?” “Ok, sorry, sorry,” she apologized, pausing a bit to think. “Stop where you are!” “But Twilight, I’ll–” “Stop!” the female voice shouted. “Now!” I skidded to a halt, stopping between what seemed to be two exact replicas of the same house sitting across the street from each other. “What now?” I asked, glancing behind me to see that the smoky creatures seemed to now be melded into one solid black cloud with thousands of pinpricks of red bouncing and swaying of their own accord. Now, not only the street was covered in the bodies of those creatures, but the swarm had even engulfed entire cottages in the smoke. The horde had turned into a black smoky wall, charging directly towards me. Twilight hadn’t responded to my question, and a sever panic started to seep into my mind. “Twi! Twi, what do I do now?! Tell me!” “Turn left and head into the alleyway!” she shouted back almost immediately. I turned and obeyed her orders, running directly between the two cottages to my left, only to come upon the same fence I had seen before and a boarded up window. “Twilight…” I started, frantically looking around for some way out of this dead end. “Oh shit...” she replied. “I meant right. There should be an opening in the fence on the right! Go before the horde catches up!” “Damn it, Twilight!” I shouted, both from my anger at her misguiding me, and from putting all my weight on my screwed up leg, sending a burning sensation throughout my body and re-igniting the pain in the numb limb. Lunging forward to get the weight off my bad leg, I glanced to the right. The smoky figures were directly in front of my eyes. For that instant, time seemed to slow down as an unnerving chill was sent down my spine, my breath forming a cloud in front of my face. I stared into a pair of red eyes, and it seemed to judge me and look directly into my soul, almost as if I were some evil monster. The eyes stood unwavering in the thick black fog cloud, almost seeming to glow. I wanted to scream, but my lips felt numb and I felt like I had no control over my tongue. For a mere second in the heart-stopping moment, I swore I could almost make out a figure in the shadows. One of the pairs of eyes near the back faded slightly into a distinct shape. “Mom?” I put my weight back on my injured leg, not realizing it and shut my eyes tightly from the pain. I opened them back up and stumbled on after shouting out, but the figure I had seen had disappeared. I ran to the other side of the street into the alley that Twilight had told me about in panic with sweat drenching my body. The alleyway was indeed there, but there was no exit to be found. “Twilight, there’s no way out!” I screamed, my heart beating a mile a minute and my brain still arguing with itself whether or not to go back out and verify if the figure I saw was my mom. That had to be impossible though, because she had been gone for almost twenty years. “But there has to be,” Twilight responded, sounding worried. “From what I can see, the only way out is through that alleyway... Maybe it’s hidden. Look around!” I looked around the little corridor, but I saw nothing different about this alleyway than the few that I had already been down. Glancing back, I saw the horde had finally caught up to me. The smoky cloud stopped at the alleyway and sat there menacingly, not even attempting to come any further into the small space. I sat frightened, knowing that there was no way for me to escape. The eyes stared at me and I stared back in horror waiting for them to make a move. For a few tense moments, we both stood there waiting for the other to do anything, me scared out of my mind. I could hear a faint whisper that sounded like a mix of wind and somebody screaming in pain emulating from the dark mass in front of me. The eerie red fog swirling around us only heightened the tension. I stood cowering when finally something moved in the black smoke. A hazy figure slowly materialized in the horde, slowly walking toward me. This time, the glowing red eyes seemed to belong to an actual body, not just some smoky figure. The figure started to take the shape of a normal stallion, although its body seemed to be bigger than any stallion I had ever seen. The glowing red eyes partially illuminated his face as he slowly emerged from the smoke. His fur was jet black and face was contorted in that of an angry growl, staring directly in my eyes. I shivered as he seemed to loom over me. After a few seconds, he finally emerged from the haze, standing directly over me. I could feel his breath on my fur; the chill from it biting into my skin. I couldn’t tell whether I was shivering from the sudden freezing temperature or from fear when I realized who it was that was staring into my eyes. “D...Dad?” “Why Colgate?” my father asked me, a frown plastered on his face, his eyes seeming to burn a hole in my skull. “You never came back for us Colgate. You never even tried to save you own parents. “B-but daddy, I…” I replied trailing off, a tear escaping my eyes, “You told me to run away and never–” “I told you to run because I expected you to come back and help us.” His gaze seemed to grow angrier and angrier with every word. “My own daughter couldn’t save her own parents when all they did was love her. You didn’t even try to come back.” “Daddy, I was scared,” I told him, tears now flowing out my eyes and blurring my vision. “I didn’t want to get hurt…” “You were scared?” he bellowed as I whimpered, flinching away from his unmerciful gaze. “You didn’t want to get hurt?! Then why did you come back now? We’ve been gone for twenty years, and you didn’t come back until now.” “I was with Twilight, Twilight Sparkle, and…” “You wanted to show it off to a friend did you?” he asked in a menacing tone. I was about to explain when he said, “You even gave away our only secret. The only thing we held dear to our hearts, you ripped up and stomped on.” “No, dad!” I cried, holding out a hoof. “Please... I was only trying to help…” “No you weren’t,” the black stallion said, walking up to me and raising a hoof. He swiftly brought it down and I felt a stinging pain pulse in my cheek as I fell backwards. I wailed, the pain mixing with the humiliation of my own father hitting me to the ground. “You don’t care about anyone.” He turned around and walked to the edge of the mass as I laid on the ground weeping and nursing my bruised cheek. “Dad! No!” I managed to yell out. He turned his head and looked at me one last time. He waited a second, a scowl on his face before speaking one last time. “I have no daughter.” I sat there in shock as he disappeared back into the thick smoke and glowing red eyes of the horde. I watched him until he completely dissipated in the thick fog. My mind was numb, and I knew I wanted to cry as well as get Twilight to get me out of this trap, but all I could do was sit there and watch the creatures stare at me as I gazed into the place my father disappeared. I couldn’t move at all, and it wasn’t until I heard Twilight practically screaming at me before I saw the horde closing in on me. “Go through the fence, Colgate!” her voice shouted into my ear. “It’s a fake fence, Celestia damn it! Just go through it! Colgate, can you hear me? Please say you can hear me…” I turned around and jumped directly at the fence, not even bothering to test first that it was indeed fake. I went right through what appeared to be wood, my fur tingling as I went through. I stood there for a few moments, tears silently gliding down my face. I didn’t want to go on, but I knew that without my help Twilight would be trapped here forever. “Colgate,” Twilight said in my ear, “are you ok? You stopped moving.” “Just give me a second, Twilight, I need to look around and figure out where I am,” I lied. I needed some time to recover from what had to have been fictional. That figure that had just berated me looked exactly like my father, but I know it couldn’t be him; he would never blame me for what happened. Looking around, I saw that I had appeared on yet another desolate, fog-filled street, and when I turned around to check if the horde had followed me through the fake fence, I saw that I had just appeared in front of another cottage, almost as if I had just walked out the front door. This one was different from the ones I had run past on the endless street, though. I recognized this particular cottage the moment my eyes glanced over it. It was my parents’ old house. The windows were boarded up, and when I gave the door a tap, I found it to be solid wood. It appeared as if whatever portal I had stepped through was now closed. I tried opening the door, but as I suspected, it was shut tight and wouldn’t budge, almost if it were just a part of the wall. I looked up at the two story house, tears still in my eyes from the encounter with my fake father. I tried to push the bad thoughts to the back of my mind, knowing I needed to focus on the task at hoof. The room directly above the doorway, which would have been my bedroom If this were an exact replica of my parents’ cottage, had what looked to be a candle flickering in it. The inconsistent golden light was creepily out of place, since everything else still seemed to be frozen in time. As I was watching the light dance on the wall, a shadow crossed over the light of the unnatural flicker and suddenly, the candle went out. “Twilight, are you up there?” I called up to the window, my voice quivering ever so slightly. The silence that followed told me that either she hadn’t heard me or she wasn’t the pony who was in the room. I was about to call again when I heard her whisper into my mind, “No, Colgate. According to my location spell, you should still be a few blocks away. Why were you calling my name?” “I thought I saw something in one of the windows of this house,” I replied, turning around and walking down the few steps that led away from the door. I had not taken another step when a sound caught my ear. I turned towards the noise coming from behind me and noticed that it was being produced by something in the second-story window, the same one I had just seen the candle in. It sounded as if some filly was laughing or giggling. “Colgate, will you stop?” a voice said from the window. I immediately recognized it, gasping and calling back to it. “Mother!” I shouted. “I–” “Come on Mom,” another higher-pitched voice replied to my mother’s, cutting me off mid-sentence. I stopped cold, a sudden realization hitting me that I knew that voice. I didn’t know whether to trust my gut or not. “Do I have to go to bed?” “Yes you do,” my mother’s voice replied to the other one. “You need to get some shuteye for tomorrow. We were going to let you try out the spell.” I gasped, backing up from the window and the house itself, tears starting to well up in my eyes again. I recognized this conversation; it was the one I had the night before my mother and father disappeared with those creatures nearly twenty years ago. I didn’t know what to think about it. How did this world know about my past and why is it replicating it now? Half of me wanted to run and find Twilight, and the other half wanted to stay and listen. “Really?!” The childish voice that must have been me yelled in delight. I took another step back from the house, staring at the window the voices were coming from. It was too dark to see inside, so I couldn’t actually see my mother, but the tears welling up in my eyes would have made it impossible anyways. “You guys are gonna let me do it all by myself?” “We’ll help you out if you need it,” my mom’s voice softly consoled the younger me. “But you need to get some sleep if you want to do it at all, my little dentist. I heard my younger self giggle and then there was a pause. After a few moments, my mother started to hum. The melody was one I knew all too well. I turned around at the first verse and started to run down the street. I knew the lullaby all too well. It was my favorite one as a child, and my mom would sing it to me every night before tucking me into bed. I ran down the short street, the lyrics floating in my head. As I sprinted down the road, familiar cottages and places I knew appeared and, as quickly as I saw them, disappeared. No matter how fast I ran, I could hear the lullaby being hummed softly in my ear. Hush little Colgate, don’t say a word. Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird. I ran past a grey concrete building that looked exactly like the orphanage I was sent to after my parents disappeared. As I sprinted past the massive double doors, I could hear my music teacher yelling at me for missing the notes again and bringing down the rest of the choir. And if that mockingbird won't sing, Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring. Another building on the left resembled my first foster family house, a ragged shack that didn’t look fit to house people in. I remember getting yelled at there for accidentally losing the mother’s ring when she told me to hold on to it. I dropped it down the drain by accident. And if that diamond ring turns brass, Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass. Another of my foster parent’s houses passed on the left. Soon, despite my injured leg, I was galloping down the street, my eyes blurry and my throat tight. I just wanted it to end. I didn’t want to hear the final verse any more than I wanted to be in the forsaken place. The hum of my mother refused to stop and it’s final verse came in. And if that looking glass turns brown, You'll still be the sweetest little filly in town. I stopped where I was, not wanting to move and not wanting to move on. In front of me stood the one house I knew very well. I stared at the old white cottage, tears streaming down my face. I had shared the place with Lily for almost three years now. We had been best friends in the orphanage, and we both ended up moving to Ponyville when we finally got out of school. She had gone into her own business setting up a local floral shop and I had become the town dentist. We both bought this house together and we planned to live there until either one of us got married. Lily had just moved out with her fiance not more than a month ago. I wanted to go home, but this was too much. After standing there in a daze, I decided the only way I was ever going to see that house or Lily again is if I soldiered on. Wiping away my tears as best I could, I stepped up to the door and pushed on it. Surprisingly, the wooden door opened with ease. Inside, the building was empty, save for a few pieces of furniture here and there. It was just like it had been when we first bought it. I took a few steps forward, closing the door behind me. “Twilight?” I called to the old walls in a somber tone, hoping she wasn’t very far now. I didn’t want to stay here for too long, because I wanted to find Twilight and Lily and go home to my real house. I was done with this screwed-up world, and I never ever wanted to come back. Twilight failed to respond, so I took a quick walk through the few rooms of the house. Nothing was out of place aside from the boarded-up windows, and even though the entire house was quiet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong. I looked up the stairs to see if there was anything different about the attic entrance when I saw that there was a light glowing from the door at the top that led to the attic. “Twilight, is that you?” I asked once again. I was starting to get really nervous at her sudden silence. Slowly making my way up the stairs, I looked at the light glowing from under the door. Instead of the general red-hue that I was slowly becoming used to, the light was more of a golden-yellow color like the candle from my parent’s house. As I made my way closer to the top, I could hear muffled shouting, making me step as lightly as I could manage. I made it all the way up the stairs as quietly as I could, being careful not to step on any of the creaky steps. Taking a deep breath, I placed a hoof gingerly on the door and slowly pushed on it. The door swung silently open and it took all I could not to yell out at what I was seeing. It was Lily, and she was crying profusely and begging a figure at the window not to jump out. “Please, Mom, don’t do this!” she shouted at the mare in the window, bawling her eyes out. Before I could intervene or even speak up, the mare turned around and lept from the window. Lily shouted and ran to the sill, crying and putting her face in her hooves. I wanted to go over and help her, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to approach her. I let her cry for a few minutes on the windowsill, letting the shock pass a little before I finally spoke up. “Lily,” I calmly said, trying not to startle her too badly. However, she leapt up in surprise and shouted when she heard her name. “It’s ok Lily,” I tried to console her. “It’s me, Colgate!” “No, Daddy!” she shouted back at me. She seemed to not even notice I was there, looking past my eyes and into space. Her eyes were milky white and she seemed scared beyond all belief. “You can’t make me!” she yelled again, galloping directly at me. I jumped out of the way just as she careened past me and down the stairs. “Lily, wait!” I shouted as I heard the door slam downstairs. “Shit,” I said to myself, running down the stairs after her. I hopped down the last few steps before turning around and running for the front door. Smashing through it, I noticed I wasn’t on the street I had come in on. I watched as Lily disappeared into the fog ahead of me, the surrounding landscape completely void of any buildings. There was nothing but a dirt path in front of me. Looking behind me, I noticed that my house was entirely gone as well. The only thing I could see around me was the thick red fog that ominously swirled about the ground. I took a few steps down the path where Lily had ran, when I finally saw it. Twilight’s treehouse, the Golden Oaks Library, stood right in front of me. The door was half open, and I heard Lily scream from inside along with a shout from Twilight. “Twilight! Lily!” I shouted, sprinting for the door. I would finally be able to see my friends again after such a long time apart. I kicked open the door and ran in, but Lily was cowering in the corner and Twilight was with her, trying to console her. “Twilight?” I asked the lavender unicorn who was silently stroking Lily’s mane, staring off into space with a grim expression on her face. “What’s wrong?” “I’m so sorry, Colgate…” she said, not even glancing away from the wall she seemed to be staring at. “They made me do it.” “Who made you do what?” I asked just as I heard the door slam behind me, blocking out all the light in the room. “Twilight! What’s going on?!” “I’m so sorry.”