The Passage of Time

by MasterFrasca

Master Time Lord

Master Time Protector

“Hello, Colgate,” a voice contemptuously greeted me from the left. “Have you been having fun manipulating time and space?” I could hear the acidity of his tone slicing through the air.

I turned around to see a simple brown earth pony standing in front of the now-closed door, a stern look of anger plastered across his face. “Who are you?” I spat back, my own anger starting to show from the hours of running across this fake town and being chased by those evil black creatures. “What have you done to my friends?”

“What have I done?!” he shouted with a grimace, taking a step towards me. “I haven’t done a damn thing to either of your friends. They brought this upon themselves.” He looked at me in disgust before turning around and walking over to the window.

“Don’t lie to me, you bastard.” I shouted at his unmoving figure by the window. He stood silently gazing through a crack in one of the boards on the window next to Twilight and Lily. “Don’t you ignore me!” I shouted again, noticing that he wouldn’t budge from his spot. “What did you do to Twilight and Lily?!”

He turned his head just enough that I could see his one eye. “I. Didn’t. Do. Anything,” he stated, putting a pause in between each word he spoke. “Did you not hear me the first time. Your friends came here on their own.”

“Bullshit,” I replied, gritting my teeth.

“Colgate,” Twilight started before I cut her off.

“Why won’t you let us leave? Why did you trap us in here? Do you have some fucked up plan for our corpses after you have your minions kill us? Do you? Come on now!” I was ready to charge at him and buck his face in. My blood was boiling, and I knew he was the reason we were stuck here.

The brown stallion slowly turned away from the red haze of the window, and in the faint light, walked right up in front of me. His glare was no longer that of hatred, but that of an apathetic frown. “Understand this, Colgate,” he said to me, my anger subsiding at this sudden change of expression. “I’m not the one keeping you here. Those ‘minions’ you talk about are Time Protectors that are no longer under my control. I’m as trapped in this hell-hole as you are. If you want to leave the library, then by all means, leave.” He paused a bit staring into my eyes as if waiting for a rebuttal. “I’m not going to stop you from walking out to your doom. Your safest bet at the moment is to stay in this library. I had Twilight call you here, for your own safety. I just didn’t think it would take you through what it did.”

I tried to come up with a response to all of that, but my mind was only drawing blanks. I suddenly felt bad for yelling at this guy without even knowing who he was or why he was here. “I’m…sorry about that…” I sheepishly said, my anger completely dissipated and my embarrassment stopping me from saying much else.

“Now if you don’t mind Mrs. Colgate, please keep it down so that we aren’t discovered by the Time Protectors,” the brown stallion calmly replied with the same frown he had been wearing since he started explaining his situation. He turned and walked back to the same window, staring back out into the murky red fog.

A silence settled over the room, the only sound echoing on the hard, wooden walls was Lily’s incessant whimpering and muttering about something her parents that nopony would have been able to understand. I glanced over to Twilight, who looked into my eyes with a frown and nodded as if to tell me that what the brown Earth pony had just said was true. She then glanced over to his figure who remained unmoving next to the window. She glanced back to me and without saying a word, motioned to me to talk with him.

“Um…” I hesitantly began, the stallion barely turning his head at the sound. “So, I never caught your name. Since I already screwed up once, why don’t I try again?”

“My name is Time Turner,” the stallion responded before turning back to the window, stone-faced.

I turned back to Twilight and bit my lip to tell her I didn’t know what to do. She took the hint and turned towards Time Turner herself. “Mr. Turner, You mentioned that those Time Protectors were ‘no longer under your control.’ What do you mean ‘no longer’?”

Time Turner stood there for a second in silence before sighing and drooping his head slightly. “I mean just that,” he said turning around and walking over to one of the bookshelves. Pulling an old book seemingly at random off the shelf, he continued explaining as he flipped through the old pages. “They used to be in my control. When I was a kid, I was always fascinated with potion-making and non-unicorn magic.”

He flipped through a few more pages before seeming to find something in the old book. He walked over to me and handed me the book as Twilight got up and trotted over to see what he had just handed me. The page seemed to contain complex potions that I couldn’t follow. “I remember reading this book recently,” Twilight said, taking the book from me and staring intently into it. “This book was based on the theory that there were multiple planes of existence, and it claimed to have a potion that had the ability to create one. I tried creating the potion with Zecora, but we never had any successes.”

“Exactly,” Time Turner replied as I tried to keep up with what Twilight was saying. “The potion failed for me multiple times as well. It wasn’t until I had had a fight with my parents about attending the University of Canterlot for potions-making. They said that they would refuse to pay for me to attend the school for a ‘silly filly’s game.’ I tried the potion one last time in a fit of rage to show them that I wasn’t some crazy colt. I made the potion and used it right in front of them. That time, however, it worked exactly as the book had said it would, and I was taken to this hazy world.”

“Dear Celestia,” I said remembering reading in the newspaper just a few days ago about how a colt named Time Turner had gone missing. “You were that colt that was missing in the newspaper, weren’t you? But you’ve been here for…”

“Five years,” the stallion finished for me, as my mind struggled to comprehend how that was possible. “Time must pass much slower here than on Equestria, because I remember hearing about Twilight Sparkle defeating Queen Chrysalis in Canterlot before I sent myself into this forsaken world.” He finished his sentence, staring at Twilight who still had her nose buried in the book that I had given to her.

“That happened less than a week ago…” I said, baffled. I remembered having to help my friends fight off some of the changelings with my magic.

“Five days ago exactly,” Twilight said, a surprised tone escaping her lips as she shut the book and curiously gazed at Time Turner. “Time here must move a year for every day we experience in the real world.”

“So if you were the one who created that potion supposedly making this other plane, then where did those shadowy Time Protectors come from?” I asked

“Another one of my accidents,” Time Turner said, going up to the bookshelf again. This time however he pulled out a dilapidated book that seemed like its pages were about to fall out. He walked over and instead of handing me the old text, passed it to Twilight. “This is a personal journal I have made documenting the experiments I have done and potions I have created in this world. One of my potions accidentally summoned the Time Protectors to this realm.

“At first I could command them, for there weren’t that many, and they loyally carried out any command I gave to them. It was wonderful having a friend with nearly limitless power. They gave me everything I requested, and I found I could easily make any potion I wanted. After a few weeks, I realized that I wanted to go home and see my parents, so I started working on a return potion. All of a sudden, the Time Protectors seemed to grow angry with me, and their numbers grew. Soon they overran my command and now they control this place, and I have no way of finding the necessary components for a return potion.”

“And you haven’t found a single thing since then?” I asked as Twilight made various gasps and noises of interest while reading the old book Turner had given her.

“I couldn’t get some of the necessary elements after those creatures started manipulating my world. Those creatures took my perfect replica of the real world and twisted it up so damn much that nothing made any sense.” Turner seemed really angry, pacing back and forth between the middle of the room and the boarded window. Suddenly he stopped and stompped abruptly on the ground, his eyes shut tightly as he seemed to shout at the window. “You took away my best creation, you bastards! I had my perfect world, and you twisted it into my personal HELL!”

Twilight dropped Turner’s book and jumped back, caught off-guard by the sudden bout of anger spewing from the vehement brown stallion in front of her. I was just as scared at the outburst, and I didn’t know what to say. Twilight had a look of pure horror on her face, and I tried my best to reassure her, giving her a sheepish smile to ease the tension. After a few brooding seconds of silence, Turner sighed and opened his eyes back up and glanced in our direction.

Turning away from us again, he quietly apologized. “I’m sorry for the outburst,” he mumbled, his face turned away from us. He walked over to us and hung his head low, finishing his apology. “It’s just that…” he started. “I want to get out of here as much as you three do. I’ve been stuck here for five miserable years. I want to leave…”

I paused for a second, giving a big sigh before embracing the stallion. “It’ll be ok,” I whispered in his ear while squeezing his head. I knew exactly how he felt, and I knew that, were I in his position, I would want to be comforted by whoever would take me. “We’re going to get out of this.”

Time turner put a hoof around me and squeezed back before doing something I thought he wasn’t going to do. He buried his head into my shoulder and let out a sob. Then he let out another, whimpering as I tried to comfort him. “Shh…” I softly spoke, “We’re going to get you home Time Turner. We’re all going to go home.”

He sobbed a few more times before finally shuddering one last time and letting go of me. He took a step back, shut his eyes and took a deep breath in, slowly letting it out. With a solemn face he opened his eyes and muttered, “Let’s go home.”

“There you go!” I said, excited to see my encouragement had worked. “So what do you need us to do for you? Do you need us to go find something for the potion?”

“I don’t think that it’ll be possible to get the few ingredients to finish the potion when the world is so twisted like it is. The last ingredients were Zap Apple Paste and pure essence of magic. I think I may be able to get some essence of magic out of one of you ladies if you don’t mind, but even then, I’d have no idea where I could find zap apples in this damned realm.”

“Actually,” Twilight cut in, once again reading the book that she had dropped when Turner had snapped. “If I’m reading your notes right, we could use a regular apple if I performed a certain low-level spell on it.”

“Twilight,” I cut in before Turner could respond, “how are you casting spells? I’ve been trying the handful of spells I know and none of them are working. Is there something special that you have to do?”

“I’m not one-hundred percent certain about this, but as long as a spell doesn’t relate to time manipulation or lighting, it can be cast fairly easily. I was actually testing the limits of this while I was hiding in here with Time Turner, and I found that any spell I tried related to time manipulation caused a migraine. Trying to light a room caused the same effect, and I found levitation is possible, but extremely difficult to maintain for longer than a few seconds. I haven’t tested it too extensively, but I’m sure I can pull off the spell to replace the Zap Apple paste.”

“Alright, so where do we go to get the Apples? I don’t imagine too many of them grow in this odd world. It doesn’t seem like much of anything could survive here.”

“Actually,” Turner replied before Twilight could answer, walking back over to the widow, “There are some apples over at the Apple Family property that we could easily take. They never go bad over there. They’re the only reason I haven’t gone hungry. I usually stay over there, but I moved to the center of town when I noticed that the Time Protectors were getting restless. I actually haven’t eaten in a while because I can’t sneak around when they’re on the prowl.”

“That works!” I said, excited before I backed off once I realized what he had said. “What do you mean ‘sneak around’ though? I thought those creatures just left you alone.”

“Exactly the opposite, actually,” he said, staring out the window once again. “they’ve been searching for me ever since I’ve lost my control over them all those years ago. I just know how to avoid them. Speak of the devils...”

“Oh shit, are they here?” I muttered, moving over to the window as quietly as I could.

“Yeah they’re just outside,” Turner mumbled back. “I don’t think they know where–”

“I WON’T LET THEM TAKE ME!” Lily suddenly shouted from the floor, jolting upwards and sprinting towards the back door.

“Woah, Lily, No!” I shouted, running after her and tackling her to the ground. She struggled and squirmed as I tried to calm her down. “Lily! Nopony is going to take you, but you need to calm down. Calm… Down…Lily”

I pinned her hooves to the ground with my own, putting my entire body weight on top of her and holding her limbs in place. I held her down as best I could, but as she squirmed, one of my hooves slipped off and she managed to kick me square in the gut. I got the wind knocked out of me and she easily got the better of me, pushing me off. As I was trying to catch my breath, Twilight and Time Turner ran over and kept Lily down.

“Lily,” Twilight tried to calm her as Turner held Lily on her back. “You need to snap out of this. This isn’t you. I know this isn’t you Lily. Snap out of it!”

Turner struggled to hold Lily down while Twilight pleaded with her. I shakily took a breath, the wind still knocked out of me, and pushed myself slowly to my hooves. Closing my eyes, I took a labored breath in and jumped up. Letting it out, I calmly walked over to Lily who suddenly let out an ear-piercing scream. I jammed a hoof in her mouth as I leaned over to her, noticing a ghostly image in her eyes. “Lily,” I calmly said, embracing her in a hug. “It’s ok. It’s your friend, Colgate.”

Lily stopped struggling and Time Turner let up on her, letting me embrace her fully. “Colgate?” she asked, the ghostly image I could make out in her eyes lifting as she seemed to finally return to her senses. “Colgate, where am I?” She blinked a few times, looking around the room. “Who are you?” she asked Turner, obviously very flustered. “Why are you hugging me, and what is going on?”

“Lily you’re back!” I said squeezing her all the tighter.

“That doesn’t really answer any of my questions, Colgate,” Lily responded struggling to speak with me squeezing her, “but thanks for the hug.”

I let go of her and stepped aside, helping her back to her hooves. “Well, I won’t really be able to explain too much now,” I said as Turner motioned for us to follow him to the back of the Library, “but to make a long story short, we’re in another world being chased by monsters. The brown stallion is Time Turner is going to help us, but we need to get him an apple.”

She gave me an odd look when I mentioned the apple, but I just shook my head and continued on, saying, “Don’t worry about it. We’re going to Sweet Apple Acres to get some, and we need to help Turner out as much as we can, ok? Just remember to stay quiet so we can sneak past the creatures.”

“Alright,” she whispered, following Time Turner, Twilight and I out a window in the back “I think I remember Twilight trying to explain this to me. Everything is so hazy though…”

“Don’t worry about it, Lily. It’s good to see you again,” I said, helping her out the window. “Let’s get going.” We stood outside the back of the treehouse, leaning on the wall so that we were still as far in the shadows as we could get.

“Ok, the farm, granted those creatures haven’t messed with this place that much, should be down this street here,” he said pointing into the fog at one of the many openings. “The trip is going to be hectic. There’s no way we’re going to make it without those things noticing us. Twilight, how long will it take you to produce enough power for the essence of magic?”

“I’ve already started to build up my charge,” Twilight said, pointing to her horn. Turner glanced around the corner briefly before turning back to us. “It will take me around five minutes to be ready to release the magic, but I won’t be able to perform any spells while I’m charging up.”

“Alright, we may as well set off now while we have the upper hand. They’ll notice the movement, but I don’t think they’re too quick to catch on, so we’ll have a few seconds of a head start. Just remember, we need to go to the farm and collect an apple. Then, we need to get it over to the barn where I have all my potions-making equipment set up. I can whip up everything there. Just follow my lead, and we should make it out of here alive. Ready?”

I nodded and turned my head to see the determined faces of my two friends nod as well. “On you’re que, Mr. Turner.”

“Please,” he confidently remarked with a grin. “I prefer Master Time Protector.”

With that, he bounded towards the street as fast as he could go. Twilight raced right behind him, a purple spark shooting out of her horn with an audible blip. Directly after her, Lily galloped at lightning speeds. I hesitated a second and let a small grin creep across my face. We were finally going to get out of this hell.

I bounded towards my friends, turning my head while I ran to see how many Time Protectors we’d be running from this time. When my eyes locked in place, I saw dozens of pinpricks of red staring back at me. Their gaze was ice cold, and as I was running towards the street to escape, I felt a chill going down my spine. I stopped dead in the middle of the road and felt a sudden empowerment swell up in me. Instead of the usual fear-induced adrenaline, a joy overcame me, and I started to laugh. After a few seconds, I was belting laughter across to the creatures, their gaze only heightening my spirits. “Come get us, you bastards!” I shouted at them before taking off once again towards my friends. “I’m not afraid of you,” I added in under my breath.

A few heart-pounding seconds flew by as all four of us rocketed down the street as fast as we could. I cocked my head backwards, making sure not to slow down and I saw the red eyes of the vermin “Time Protectors” that had been haunting me ever since we came here. In the split second it took for me to turn back, I heard a moan rattle the very street beneath me erupt from the massive cloud of them that was building.

The scream sounded like a rabid animal crying out in pain, and it felt like little pricks of ice were bombarding my ears. A chill ran down my spine from the unnerving noise, but I couldn’t help but feel a sudden pang of sadness. The noise, although unearthly in sound, felt oddly familiar, as if I had known the person or thing making it. It nearly reminded me of my parents voices, although the noises seemed too off to be them.

“Keep running!” I said, a new sense of fear welling up inside the pit of my stomach. A wave of adrenaline shot through me as I barreled down the seemingly endless street behind two close friends and the brown stallion who promised a way home. The fog around me turned into a hazy blur as I felt the wind whipping my mane around. Fear powered me through, but I felt a sense of pride flow through me. I couldn’t help but smile, because we were finally going to get out of here.

“Girls!” Turner shouted to us over the ambient noise of air whooshing past our ears, “you have to follow me regardless of what I do, ok?”

“Got it!” Twilight shouted back, starting to already look a little exhausted with sparks flickering and shooting out of her horn every few seconds.

“We’re following you, Time Turner,” Lily responded just ahead of me, a look of determination plastered across her face.

“Colgate, you got it back there?” Turner shouted, turning his head ever so slightly to face me. I gave him a little grin.

“You jump off a cliff, and I follow you over the edge, chief!” I called back, giving him a wink. I seriously hoped he wasn’t planning on doing that anytime soon though.

“Good,” he said, giving me a smile back before turning his head back forward. “Things are going to get a little weird up ahead. Don’t doubt my steps. Ever.”

As we kept running, I stole a glance behind me to see the there didn’t seem to be a massive crowd following us this time. I turned my head back to the front, curious as to where they went. I just kept on galloping, hoping that we had somehow actually lost them. I knew they were there just out of view in the fog, following us as closely as they could. We ran into the fog some more, passing the same buildings again and again, when I started to notice something odd.

“Is it just me,” I called out, starting to pant a little, my legs starting to grow a bit weak, “but is the fog getting thinner?”

“We’re almost there then,” Time Turner called back, slowing up enough that he was running nearly beside us. “This next bit is going to get tough. If you slip up, get back to your hooves immediately, or you may not be getting back up ever again. Do you girls understand me?” He was looking directly at us with a serious expression on his face. We nodded in agreement and he sped back up in front of us. “When I say to do something, do it,” he reminded us.

As soon as the last few words escaped his lips, the fog disappeared entirely, as if someone had taken a vacuum and sucked it completely out of the air. I glanced back and noticed a solid brick wall was no blocking our path back. I stopped mid-gallop and stared at the impossibility. “Guys, there’s a wall now,” I shouted to the others, noticing that they were still plowing onwards. “Can we rest a bit, now?” My legs were aching now, and I was nearly out of breath.

“No, Colgate!” Time Turner stopped and started sprinting towards me. “Move! Now!”

I looked back and saw that the brick wall was now directly behind me, my nose no further than a few inches from the rough, reddened surface. My heart skipped a beat, and I jumped up in fright, leaping as far forward as my tired legs would allow. Looking back, I noticed that the wall was even closer than it was before. “What the hell is that thing?!” I shouted as Time Turner turned back and sped in front of Twilight and Lily.

“I would tell you if I knew,” Time Turner said back to us as the surrounding houses meshed into a solid line of trees. “but I’d prefer to be on this side of the wall and away from the Protectors. We’re entering the Everfree now. It’s just as sensible as anything else in the place, so don’t get lost.

I glanced back and noticed that the wall was keeping up with our pace. Whenever I looked at it, the thing was stationary, but when I glanced away it would move closer; I decided that it would be best not to pay attention to it and just keep running. The trees around us now seemed to have minute gaps between them. I could only see a black void through the spaces, but there was no conceivable way of fitting a pony through the gaps.

“Keep following me no matter what it looks like I’m about to do,” Time Turner barked once more behind him. Looking ahead, it seemed as if the forest was about to end with only a black void extending into eternity when, without seeming to have any sense of danger, Time Turner leapt into the air right where the path seemed to drop off into nothing. As he started to fall into the black void he shouted at the top of his lungs, “TO FREEDOM!”

“To escape!” Twilight shouted as she leapt, her body disappearing over the edge as well. Lily was just behind her.

“To home!” Lily half-shouted and half-yelped as she slipped off the edge, misstepping a bit.

“To leaving this hell,” I muttered, approaching the edge fast. I took my final step and took a leap of faith, closing my eyes and feeling the mind grace my mane. I opened my eyes and stared into the fresh void, it's horrible gaze fixated on me.

“Unless death should stop us cold.”

Author's Note:

Contrary to popular belief, this actually isn't the last chapter.