//------------------------------// // Recognition // Story: Clockwork // by 71NYL-5CR4TCH //------------------------------// It's always been the solitude. The reason why I don't utilize my gift to the fullest extent, as some ponies would say. As she's pointed out, I could do anything. I could get away with anything. But to what end? Nopony would know I had done it, or even that it was done. It would wash along with time, unnoticed and unappreciated. Perhaps that is why I don't. Why I do nothing but that which fills my time and occupies me. For as nopony would like to admit, there is an underline reason we all aspire for greatness. Recognition. We all crave it, desire it, need it. To be recognized, to have another confirm that our existence has meaning. That we stand above the rest as someone, or something spectacular. We bloody our hooves and break our backs over a simple 'good job' or 'thank you'. We desire to be more than accepted. We desire to lead by example. And in these gaps I lead. In here I am the king of my own land. With not a subject to lead. So I let it come back to me, time, rushing like a whirlwind of energy and smile. I smile at her, and she's smiling back. "Can you take me with you?" I blink. "You mean, into the gaps?" "Yes." "I...I don't know." She grabs my hoof in hers and whispers "Try." So I focus. And she focuses. I focus just in the way I would to stop the world normally. And I can feel her. Feel her holding on while I try to break free from the stream. Into a gap. But it's harder. I have to hold onto the gap much tighter. "You have to hold on tight..." My eyes clench shut. And I begin to pull. At first all is quiet, as it normally is. Perfect silence. I crack open my eyes and begin to look around. Sure enough all is still. Completely stopped. Existing within my picture in time Until I feel something for the first time. Something new, something foreign A movement within the gap. Her hoof slowly unclasps mine and retracts to her body. Her lips move, but no sound comes out, as if she's trying to speak She turns to me, a look of amazement, of bewilderment in her eyes. The sun still reflects off of them exactly the same. Glistening, like magic almost. Her smile is radiant, and she opens her mouth to speak. But not a sound escapes her. All is quiet. Perfect silence. Her eyes wander about the library, admiring as I do. Seeing as I do. Understanding as I do. The fleeting beauty in every second of time. The beauty of a single jewel in a river of diamonds. She walks towards the window, eyeing the particles of dust floating in the sunlight, before gently tapping one with her hoof. And slowly, it drifts away. She walks around some more, even peaking out windows to catch some of the truly more wondrous things. A bird, suspended mid-flight. A child's smile, frozen in time. Even the simple clouds, resting, perfectly still. She returns to me and sits down on the couch, but her eyes continue to wander, drinking in information. It truly is amazing how much detail there is here. And to think... We're just in one little gap. What of the infinite number of others we have lost? What of time itself? How can we possibly hope to comprehend all the information being thrown at us with a new gap every passing moment, when it takes hours to properly see one? How much information, emotion, feeling, and reality is lost in every passing second? But it really isn't any of my concern, because here, I have all the time in the world. We have all the time in the world. And suddenly, it matters. It matters that I have this gift, or this curse. It matters that I can do what I do. Because I can do this with somepony. I can do this... with her. Her eyes meet mine once again, and her mouth opens to speak. Yet I am greeted by silence. She tries again, but once more, not a sound. Then she simply smiles, as if she understands. She understands the gaps. She understands me. She feels the stillness of the world. And the stillness of my mind. The peace. The panic. The fear. The comfort. The power. The weakness. She understands all of it. Every conflicting thought rushing through my head because of the absolute nothingness of it all. But now, there is less nothing. There's something. There's her. Once again, I am the king of my own land. But now I have a queen. Someone to face the tempest of time with, to be with, to fight alongside. My wildest dreams and nightmares have been proven to me, have become reality, dancing in front of my very eyes. At least for now. But now is forever. And now I am king. King of my gaps. King of my mind. But not of her. For now that we are here, and not just me, she can do whatever she wants. And right now she wants to smile. And this makes me want to smile. Her hoof touches mine. And mine touches hers. Her eyes meet mine. Mine meet hers. And I do what I want most in the world. And finally... she does so back.