The Passage of Time

by MasterFrasca

Time is Fleeting

A ringing echoed throughout my brain, sounding almost like an alarm clock shouting at me to wake up. I opened my eyes slowly with my head throbbing as if someone had hit it with a sledgehammer. An insignificant light shone in through a crack far above me, and dust fell through the broken opening, slowly drifting down until it landed on the wooden floor I was currently lying on. After a minute of watching the dust float down, a low rumble growled through the air, causing dust to cascade from the small opening and blocking the light even more. I jumped up into a standing position, quickly finding out just how sore my legs were. I was ready to run should the place collapse inward on me. The rumble faded as quickly as it had began, and the air once again filled with silence and dust. I took a step forward to test my balance, only wobbling a bit as I was still woozy from the recent injury.

I could see a distinct black wall on the other side of the gymnasium sized room, and unfinished wood stretched out towards the wall from beneath my hooves. Giving a tap, I found that the floor seemed solid enough to walk safely on, and the room echoed vibrantly from the slight knock. I took a few steps forward to be directly under the crack of light. Looking up, I tried to make out what was above the crack producing the hazy light, but the dust started getting in my eyes, and there wasn’t anything noteworthy above that I could make out. A bit too much dust caught up in my throat and I snapped my head downward sprouting in a coughing fit that echoed through the room.

When I had cleared my throat, I looked around at the massive empty room and called out, “Twilight?” I paused as her name echoed furiously around the room as if I had been calling out constantly for her. “Are you in here?” The phrase echoed a little less than the last as I didn’t put as much volume behind it, expecting the echo to take care of it.

Almost immediately, a muffled voice seemed to call out, “I’m here.” I couldn’t tell if it had been Twilight’s actual voice, or if I had just imagined it. Once again, I called out as loud as I could with the noise reverberating along the walls to the point where it sounded like I was shouting at myself. Again, the sound faded slowly with my voice carrying on throughout the room until it became less than a whisper. After a second the voice I thought I had heard earlier called out a little more audibly, “Colgate?”

I turned around because I had distinctly heard the sound come from behind me. All that I could see was another black wall that seemed to also be made out of the same wood and painted as haphazardly as all the others were. Walking over to the wall, I reached out my leg and gave the section a small tap before putting my ear against the hard surface to listen for another tap to respond. I waited a few seconds in silence before starting to think that this strange place was playing tricks on my mind. Taking my ear off the wall, I wondered where I had gone after passing out in that demented second-frozen world.

Looking around again, it seemed like I was in some sort of box made of wood, not unlike the bird houses scattered around Fluttershy’s yard, and the paint that spackled the walls, floor, and presumably the ceiling all seemed to be a very low quality of black paint that had only been applied to the surface one or two times. Scratching the ground, I managed to chip off a piece of the paint and saw the unfinished wood beneath. It reminded me of the one time I had visited Mr. Whooves to fix my alarm clock, and he showed me how most of his clocks weren’t painted as well as they could have been.

Those shadowy figures had dropped me inside of this massive room, but why hadn’t they just killed me? What did they abandon me here for? This room seemed utterly pointless and deteriorated, as the crack from the top didn’t seem like it was intended for the room, especially with the massive amounts of dust flowing through it. Suddenly, my ear picked up a low rumbling sound that grew into almost a bellow before it faded away in a few echoes of the room. The rumbling sounded identical to the one that got me up a few minutes ago and sounded almost mechanical as if some machine was doing something that was causing it.

A massive thud from my side made me jump back, as it sounded like somepony had slammed their body into the wall. I waited a few seconds, and the thud resounded once again, with a crack starting to form in the wood. I wanted to go help whoever it was that was trying to break down the wall, but I was hesitant with the recent memory of the strange ponyville and those mystic creatures that seemed to seep the warmth out of the air. The thud reverberated once again, and the crack got a little bigger, pieces of the paint now chipping off and falling to the floor, and the wood beneath the coloring starting to splinter from the force. I took a step back, simultaneously eager and horrified to see what figure would pay me a visit from the other side of this wall. One final blow was dealt to the wall and wood splinters flew towards me as dust was scattered in every direction. I had to cover my eyes to keep the splinters from getting caught in them and as the dust settled a figure stepped out from the dark room on the other side breathing heavily.

“Twilight!” I called out, going over to her and giving her a tight embrace that she accepted and tried to return. She grunted and I let go of her, taking a step back and noticing that she wasn’t the same as when she had left me. She was shaking quite a bit from the effort she had just put forth in trying to break the wall down, and her legs and hooves seemed scratched beyond recognition, blood visibly seeping from her wounds and dripping on the ground. A bit of it had gotten on my legs from our embrace. The splinters may have accounted for some of the damage, but there was no way the wall did all of that to her. Her face seemed to be bruised and one eye was swollen almost completely shut. Her breathing seemed labored and I noticed that where her horn was missing, with a patch of dried blood in its place.

“Oh dear Celestia!” I called, reaching out to Twilight, catching her as she started to collapse. “Twilight, what in Luna’s sacred night happened to you?”

Her breathing decreased before she managed to squeak out, “Shadows...coming... horn...gone...”She closed her good eye, and her body went limp in my hooves as she passed out in front of me. I dragged her body away from the hole she pierced in the wall and tried to use my magic to patch up the splintered wood, but suddenly a searing pain bolted through my head almost as if someone set my horn on fire. I reacted without thinking, dropping Twilight and pushing my hooves into my forehead, willing the pain to stop.

I could feel blood trickling down my face and I dropped to the ground rolling around and screaming out in pain, wanting the sensation to halt. Slowly the searing pain dulled into a heavy throbbing and I could finally open my eyes back up without it feeling like my head was exploding. Removing my hooves from my forehead I saw that the tips were covered with glistening fresh blood. Gingerly feeling around my head, I slid over the base of my horn and a sudden, sharp stab of pain shot through it. I retracted my arm slightly out of instinct. I reached up and slowly made my way up the horn, trying to see if it was snapped off and my magic was rendered useless.

Brushing the most sensitive point on my horn, another hot nail-like feeling stabbed my head again, but I fought through it, finding my problem almost instantly. My horn was bent slightly to the left, and I knew that if I left it, the thing could never heal properly. I laid my head back and took a deep breath in as I contemplated trying to snap it back in place. It was the only chance I had at recovering the horn for magical purposes, but It was also going to be dangerous and really painful. The low rumble once again resounded through the air, exactly as it had before, telling me that whatever Twilight was mumbling about was probably causing whatever noise that was.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in, slowly letting it out and calming my beating heart to try and keep my adrenaline levels down for the dangerous procedure. I lifted both hooves and wrapped them as best as I could around my bent horn, wincing slightly at the pain of touching them. “I’m going to regret this,” I mumbled tensing up my muscles. I counted under my breath, “One...Two...Three!” I yanked.

Crack!

“CELESTIA FUCKING DAMNIT!” I screamed as blood poured out from my horn and onto my face. I thrashed around, rolling on my side so the blood wouldn’t flow into my mouth, as an indescribable pain riddled my head, feeling as if it had just been cracked completely open. “Shit!” I yelled out, clenching my face and trying to ignore the pain by swearing, “Son of a bitch!” The tactic wasn’t working and the pain kept coming, a small puddle of blood starting to form underneath me.

My hearing faded and I could no longer feel anything, feeling like I was falling into and endless black pit. The pain faded and before I knew it, I blacked out.

---

“Colgate!” Twilight’s dampened voice rang in my ears, my senses suddenly coming to me as I felt a dull throbbing pain in my head. I opened my eyes to see her blurry figure standing hunched over next to me. I grunted as best I could, not even able to feel my lips or tongue. “Colgate?” she repeated, looking into my eyes to see that they were now opened. I glanced down at the small pool of dried blood resting in between my outstretched hooves where my head was lying. I looked back up into Twilight’s eyes, noticing that she was still pretty beat up with her left eye still swollen and the various cuts on her face scabbed over. She was also still missing her horn, only having a patch of dried blood caked in her hair in its place.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, putting a hoof on my side and rolling me onto my back. “You lost quite a lot of blood before I came to. I tried my best to stop it, and it looks like its done for now.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled looking back down at the dried pool at my head. I reached up and gently patted my hair, feeling caked blood stuck in the strands. Running my hoof through the messy hair, I reached for my horn, careful not to hurt it anymore. I winced when I tapped the horn, but it felt back in place, unbent, although covered in dried blood.

“Of course,” she answered, looking nervously back at the hole in the wall and pacing back and forth. “Do you feel well enough to stand up?” She glanced back at the hole while reaching out a hoof to help stand me up.

“I think so,” I answered, grabbing her hoof and pushing myself off the floor into a sitting position. I leaned forward and stood up quickly, suddenly overcome with a dizzy feeling. I sat back down and shook my head. “Give me a few seconds to muster some strength,” I requested, staring at the floor and taking a few deep breaths to try to lose the nauseating feeling.

“Can you walk?” Twilight asked staring into the black expanse behind the shattered boards. I was starting to think that she was worried about something, as if those creatures were about to attack again.

Ignoring her question, I asked, “How did you get so beat up Twi?” I wanted to know how she ended up in the clock with me. I also wanted some time to get my body functioning again.

“Those...things,” she replied with a shudder, closing her eyes and turning away from me. “When I used that time spell, I instantly met with those black shadows. I have no clue what they did to me, because the next thing I remember was waking up in that pitch-black room over there. I discovered soon after that my horn was gone when I tried to cast a simple light spell and went through an indescribable agonizing pain. I heard your tapping on the wall and broke my way into this room. That’s when I passed out and woke up with you bleeding out on the floor. I just don’t want those things coming after us while we’re down on our knees. So again, can you walk?”

I looked at her from my awkward sitting position and leaned forward onto my hooves, slowly standing up, once again getting a dizzy feeling as I tried to take a few steps forward. “More or less,” I stated, closing my eyes and trying to get the room to stop spinning. I took a few hasty steps forward before stumbling right into Twilight.

“I don’t want to rush you,” Twilight told me, trying to help me steady myself and looking gloomily into my eyes, “but we need to get out of here as soon as we can.”

“I can walk well enough on my own,” I mumbled, pushing Twilight’s hoof off my shoulder and standing as tall as I could without feeling dizzy. This unfortunately amounted to me hanging my head and standing on shaky legs. “Let’s see if one of the other walls has any promising signs of something on the other side. Maybe we could try and break through another one together.

“Got it,” Twilight replied, turning her head and walking toward the opposite wall of the one already adorning a pony-sized hole. I started to trot behind her, but lost my balance when the large loud rumble vibrated through the floorboards.

“What do you suppose that is, Twilight?” I asked, quickly regaining my footing and trotting up beside her with my heart pounding from the scare.

“I have no idea,” she pondered, starting off for the opposite wall once again. “It sounds very mechanical, and happens about once every minute, though. Do you think we might be inside some sort of clock?”

“That would explain the sub-par painting job that this place received, but why would we get put in a clock by those things? Why wouldn’t they just kill us?”

“I’m not sure, but that tells me that these creatures want us alive for something. That still doesn’t explain why they put us in a clock.” She stared off into space, slowing down slightly in her trot, thinking about the reasons behind our entrapment. Suddenly she stopped completely as her eyes lit up and she burst out, “Wait a minute!”

“What?” I asked, trotting quickly up to her. “What is it?”

“I knew those creatures looked familiar to me!” She said, staring at the wall and seemingly talking to herself. “How could I have not put two and two together. They called themselves the guardians of the hour, the protectors of the minute, and the safe-havens of the second! The red eyes and smoky figure. The chill of the air around us. Their appearance only in the timeless world! Colgate don’t you see?”

“No,” I answered, worried about her sanity at the moment and backing away ever so slightly to let her have her moment. “What should I be seeing?”

“They are Time Lords! I read about them in one of my books. They are the creatures making sure the balance of time doesn’t get out of hand. Those shadows are just trying to keep time under control and make sure ponies don’t mess around with it. Did they not say something about time to you before they transported you in here?”

“They mentioned something about not messing with time, but I was passing out and...”

“This must be our ironic punishment, being stuck in a clock for the rest of our days!” She laughed at the irony, but I didn’t find it too humorous.

“I’d rather not stay in this clock, if that’s what it is, for all eternity, so lets try and find a way out instead of laughing at some demonic joke, ok?” I took the last few steps toward the wall before turning around and asking Twilight, who was blushing, “How are we going to know if something else is behind this wall?”

Instead of answering my question, Twilight brushed past me and put the side of her head to the wall and closed her eyes. She stood silent for a few seconds before I tried to speak up, saying, “Twilight, what-”

“Shhh!” she hushed me putting out her hoof and closing her eyes further.

“Is this about-”

“Shhh!” she waved me off once again, this time adding in a whisper, “I think I hear something!”

I put my head to the wall and listened as best as I could. From the other side, some mechanical sound seemed to be resounding through the wall. The noise was almost something that you would hear if you put a clock next to your ear and listened carefully. It sounded like the whirring of gears and clanking of metal suspended in the air.

“That sounds promising,” Twilight said, opening her eyes and taking a few steps backward looking up at the wall. “Unless you have a better idea, do you want to help me buck through this wall? They aren’t as tough as you might think.”

I nodded my head and turned around, poised to send a strong kick straight into the wall. Twilight followed me and I spoke up, “On three. One...Two...Three!”

I kicked back as hard as I could in sync with Twilight, hitting the wood wall hard and a resounding crack filled the air. Looking back I saw that part of the wall had dented in and the paint had chipped a bit. There was also a single crack running a few feet from the base up to where we had hit it. “Again,” I told Twilight. “One...Two...Three!”

I threw another kick as the wood splintered even further. My back hooves felt as if somepony ran a cart over them, but I knew that I could make at least one more kick before I needed to rest. “The wood seems... really splintered,” Twilight said, panting heavily and having to pause after every few words, “ so I’m sure... we can break it...in one more try. Ready?”

I nodded my head and we counted together panting in between each number, “One...Two...Three!”

We bucked hard onto the wood, and a massive crack bursted our eardrums as the sound of boards colliding on the ground accompanied them. Twilight and I both stood there panting for a few seconds, and I turned around to see that the room we had broken into had light streaming from it. “Look Twi,” I pointed to the archway we had created. “There’s light, which means there's an opening!”

She turned around and we both looked in to see a room alive with what seemed like a hundred gears all turning in sync above us. It did look like we had been transported inside a clock. Before I could get a look around, a distinct shape met my eyes across the room. Suddenly the single shape turned into four and then fifty, suddenly filling the entire shadowed back wall.

“Twilight,” I said grabbing her hoof as adrenaline started rushing through my body, “We need to go.”

“What’s up Colgate?” she asked not noticing the hundreds of glowing orbs that were hovering on the other end of the room. I grabbed her head and pointed it right at them.

“Time Lords.”

Comments

[night-feather]

Your chapters are too short D:

[Eldorado]

Regarding the latest chapter title,

.
That is all.

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Time Lords, huh?

Why am I expecting Time Turner to show up?

Ah well, please, do go on.

~Skeeter The Lurker