The Passage of Time

by MasterFrasca

Like Clockwork

“The gears!” I shouted as the red eyes all darted towards us, looking like a massive black haze filled with pricks of red. I discovered that what I thought had been a shadow was actually the bodies of the creatures filling the back wall with their hazy figures. The gears constantly turned, and there was a large one low enough for us to both fit on one tooth of the gear itself. “Jump!”

Twilight lept first, making the turn of the gear easily, but the few seconds it took to get herself out of the way enough cost me. I lept up at the same tooth, but as my hooves left the wooden floor the gear gave a jolt upward, catching my chin and flipping me violently backwards onto the unrelenting hardwood floor beneath. I saw a small piece of tooth land in front of me and felt a burning pain in my jaw. My vision blurred a bit, but I knew that I couldn’t pass out now.

“Colgate, Come on!” Twilight screamed down at me as she ascended further and further up the massive gear. I pushed myself into a standing position, my eyes still slightly disoriented, and looked back. Even with my vision subdued a bit, I could tell that if I didn’t get out before the next turn of the Gear, then I’d be fighting off those creatures by the dozen. Absentmindedly I rubbed a hoof against my chin and pulled it back to see it was glistening with fresh blood.

I ignored the pain and trickles of blood and turned around, lunging at the slow-moving gear, which was two entire teeth below the one Twilight was standing on at this point. The gear once again lurched upward, but instead of catching me on the chin and smashing me backwards again, I managed to grab onto the side with my hooves. The force of the movement threw me into the air and for a brief second I flipped over to see just how massive the hoard beneath us was. A sea of red eyes greeted mine for a tenth of a second before I crashed onto the tooth above the one that I was trying to get to in the first place.“Twilight,” I shouted up to her with my aching jaw through the one tooth separating us, hoping that she could hear me, “If you fall there’s no saving you. The floor beneath us is swarming with those things!”

“I saw that!” she hollered back as the huge gear jumped once again, going just diagonal enough to make me lose my footing and crash into the side of the metal circle. I was now standing at a very steep angle, and Twilight was probably near the top of the gear. Looking to my side, I tried to calculate a path to get the both of us to the top of this tower-like room. The gear we were on right now was large enough to carry us almost halfway there, but there would be some intricate jumping to get to the shelf that ran along the top of the inside of the tower.

The gear jumped once again, and I lunged for what was soon to be the top of the tooth, but I miscalculated my leap, and instead of landing perfectly on the top area, my hooves barely clung to the edge as I smashed my face into the metal yet again. I hung there for half a second, trying to regain my senses and blink the stars forming in my eyes away, but I managed to get back into it and pulled my beaten body half-up the tooth. My back legs dangled down, but with one final kick my body flopped onto the top of the tooth as it jerked forward again.

I laid there for a second breathing heavily, but my ears perked up when Twilight’s panicked voice rang out next to me. “Colgate,” I heard my name again, turning to see Twilight on a small gear next to me, ticking further upward every few seconds. “Get on here before they catch up!” She pointed a hoof at the bottom of the gear and I saw that the shadow figures had started ascending the same way we had, except they were climbing on top of each other in a frenzied attempt to get closer to us. It was working, too.

I lept to the rising gear and barely made it onto the small tooth, my senses still dull from the blows I had received. I slipped a little on the landing, but quickly regained my balance, knowing that a fall from this height would probably cause me to break something, not to mention that the creatures seemed to be multiplying by the second on the floor. Twilight was a few rungs above me and we were a little more than halfway up the room now. Taking a quick look around I saw that the next move was to jump onto what looked like a conveyor belt right next the the top of the gear I was on, and then we could hop onto another massive gear where it looked like we could jump a gap onto what looked like shelving running along the top of the room. “Conveyor belt!” I shouted upward to Twilight, who nodded her head and lept forward on the flimsy surface.

A sudden shiver ran up my spine and I glanced down to see that a few of the creatures were at the rung just below me. In fear I kicked downward at one of them trying to stop the others coming. It felt like I had just tried to kick ice-cold water. I felt my foot make contact, but it seemed to sink in a bit before the creature lost its balance and fell backward into its companions, buying me just enough time to leap onto the conveyor belt that Twilight was trotting backwards on to let me catch up to her. When I leapt forward though, my back right leg, the one I used to kick the creature, felt numb.

This sensation caused me to not jump as far as I intended, and I made it just far enough to barely grab the end of the conveyor belt with my front two legs. Luckily the conveyor belt was going away from me, so I pressed my body on the cover of it and the force of the movement pulled me up onto the belt itself. I pushed myself to my feet and tried to take a step, but my back leg was still numb, and I lost my balance. My two back legs slipped off the side once again, and my heart skipped a beat..

“Twilight!” I shouted in fear, flailing my hooves in front of me trying to grip the slippery surface of the belt to no avail. “Help me!” I glanced backward as my hooves slipped completely off the surface and I started to fall. The red eyes seemed to pierce through my skin as time seemed to slow down. Fear rose up in my soul as I realized that this is how it was all going to end, not peacefully, but horrifically and painfully.

A jerk upward brought my mind back, and I saw looked up to see a purple hoof gripping onto mine. Twilight had saved me at the last second from plunging into the sea of darkness below. “You aren’t dying on me,” Twilight said, a tear running down her cheek and falling onto my arm. I gave her a slight smile as blood rushed to my head, my adrenaline pumping. “Not today, Colgate.”

Looking down the belt, I saw that we were going to run out of room before she could properly pull me up. My brain flew as I tried to make sense of the situation, dangling with only Twilight’s weak grip separating me from life and death. “Swing me up onto the gear!” I shouted up to her.

“What?!” She responded hysterically, “Why?!”

“If you try to pull me up, either we fall off the conveyor belt or those Time Protectors catch up to us!” I harshly asserted, not wanting to waste any more time. “Now swing me onto that gear damnit!”

She swung backwards with all the might she could muster, and I helped her out by swinging my back hooves in rhythm with her pulling. She threw me with all her might toward the massive gear in front of us, and I swung forward at the same time. The force was just perfect to land me on a tooth just as the gear shifted upward. I stumbled and landed on my stomach, a little winded, but otherwise fine. I then cocked my head to see that Twilight had only a few steps to go before she needed to jump, but she wasn’t alone.

“Jump, Twi!” I exclaimed, looking at the horde of red eyes following close behind her. She noticed that I wasn’t looking at her, and glanced back for a split second. This tiny move cost her, as she misjudged where the precise end of the conveyor belt was. Her two front legs lifted up just in time to miss the edge of the belt as her head slowly revolved back around to face me. Her back legs pushed with all the strength she could give, but they hit the conveyor belts edge just a little too late and she didn’t jump nearly as much as she had meant to.

Her eyes widened as she realized her mistake and she began to descend towards the black sea below. The only sound I could hear was the slight gasp she uttered when she realized that she wasn’t going to make the gap. Her eyes plunged downward, and her mouth widened into a scream as gravity took its course. She stretched out her hooves in front of her, before wildly swinging them to try fruitlessly fly to safety with her legs. We locked eyes for a split second, and a tear escaped from her left eye before it was instantly frozen by the power of the creatures behind her. She closed her eyes and-

“Got you!” I cried out, grabbing the very tips of her hooves as the gear jolted upward. She flung her eyes open and looked up at me, tearing up and giving me a smile. “Just returning a favor.”

I pulled up as hard as I could, and managed to get her body onto the tooth with me. I tumbled backwards with Twilight lying on top of me. We both laid there for a few seconds, and just stared at each other, hearts pounding in our chests and gasping for air. Twilight suddenly gave a chuckle in between breaths of air. I returned it, realizing that we had just avoided death twice collectively. She laughed back, and I returned the gesture doubly. She rolled off me and we both stared at the ceiling laughing and wheezing until our sides hurt. We didn’t die, and that was enough to celebrate.

The gear lunged, and our hearts skipped a beat as the situation at hand came rushing back at us. We both looked at each other and glanced back down to see dark shadows pouring onto the tooth below ours, a few even slipping and falling to their doom. “When we get to the shelf above, where should we go next?” I asked Twilight, standing up and helping her off her back.

She looked around a moment before pointing a hoof and noting, “On the other wall is a small hole. Do you see the artificial light pouring through it?” I nodded yes and she continued on, telling me, “The shelving seems to run all around these walls, so if we sprint, we might be able to get out there before those creatures catch up to us.”

“Got it,” I said before the gear shifted upwards once again. Two more jumps in position later, we would be close enough to get on the shelves and make a mad dash for it. “We should get near the top of the tooth so we don’t have to climb the next time this gear shifts.”

We both went to the top and saw that the tooth below had three shadow creatures all fighting to get closer to us. The one even went to far as to push his buddy off the gear itself. “They care about getting to us more than their own well being,” Twilight noted aloud, squinting her eyes and scratching her chin. “Maybe we could use that to our advantage later...”

“Or maybe we could use it right now,” I stated, moving to the far left of the tooth.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked. Instead of answering her I kept my eyes on the two creatures that remained on the gear. Watching intently, I made my move, jumping to the right, causing the two to scramble to the far right of their section of the gear. The unlucky one on the right was shoved by his fellow comrade just a bit too hard and was knocked off the edge, plummeting silently downward. I noticed that the remaining creature would have fallen off had his buddy not stopped his skid. “I see,” Twilight said, suddenly lunging to the left. The creature followed her and overshot his jump, joining his friend on the long trip down into the black sea. The gear jumped upward again, and we were finally close enough to get off the wretched metal structure.

“Lets go, Twi,” I said, jumping up on the thin shelving and then holding out a hoof to assist her up onto the platform with me. “We bought a bit of time taking out those few stupid shadows,” I said looking down at the swarming black mass, slowly following the path we took, “but I think they’re going to catch back up to us pretty quickly.”

She nodded at me and darted ahead, swiftly running over the small wooden ledge, a bit more used to being in peril danger than I was. I carefully trotted as fast as I dared along the creaky old wood and constantly glanced back to see how far the shadows were making it. The final gear we had pushed the three ones stupid enough to follow my jumping game off was now brimming with the creatures. It was so full that by the time one reached the top, it had pushed nearly ten of its comrades off. There was no way I was going to make it to the hole before those haphazard creatures caught up with me unless I did something. I sped up my trot a little, my heart pounding as the first few shadows lucky enough to not be pushed off by a friend made it far enough to jump onto the ledge I was now practically running along.

Then an idea came to me as I turned my head back to the flow of those things following me almost like a wingless swarm. The conveyor belt that I had struggled on earlier was a weak point for the Time Protectors as well, with them going through the same trouble of jumping the gap onto a moving platform. They were having even more trouble due to the relentlessness of every creature trying desperately to get closer to us. I absentmindedly put a hoof up to my horn and gave it a rub, thinking about the recent injury. The horn was still a little sore but there was no time to check it out. I needed to slow up the opposition.

“Take this, you bastards!” I shouted, a surge of energy shooting to my horn. A slight pain accompanied the energy I felt, but I fought through it, charging up as big a blast I could muster without passing out. The energy swelled in my head, and my vision started to blur, and finally I let the energy release in a blast that knocked me back into the wall. I stumbled and almost slipped off the edge again, but I regained my balance in time to see the result of my handiwork.

The energy blast shot toward the conveyor belt with a blue glow, and it hit the front end, sending the belt flying across the room and into another gear. The gear snagged on the belt and pulled it into the works. I gave a smile as the gears slowed from the obstacle embedded in it. The other end got caught in another bigger gear, and they both pulled on each other, tensing up until the belt snapped.

My smile quickly faded as the gear that had been stuck whipped back, sending its partner spinning backwards and flying up towards me. I lept out of the way just in time to avoid the flying gear that smashed and stuck in the wall next to me. I glanced quickly down and saw that the inner mechanisms were falling apart before getting up and jogging toward the hole that Twilight was now waiting at.

“What the hell did you do?!” she shouted, looking at the chaos below. I started sprinting, realizing that I was never going to make it to the hole before the clock was going to break up entirely.

“I think I broke the clock!” I panicked, now sprinting full force at the opening.

“You think?!” she said, grabbing my hoof and pulling through the opening as another few gears got knocked off of their course. A few more rumbles told me that the pieces were finally completely collapsed.

“I was just trying to slow down the shadows by getting rid of the conveyor belt,” I panted, glancing at the clock face, which was covered with a thick layer of dust. “Why do you think there’s so much dust on that?”

“Who knows...” She walked over to the spot where the six was, breathing just as heavily as I was was. She had to be about half the size of the number. “It looks like this clock had fallen into disrepair even before you busted up the insides,” she continued, looking at the number, which had fallen onto its side. She glanced upward at the massive face and the hands, which were now stuck on the time 10:24.

“Why would they stick us in a clock, though?” I mumbled to myself, walking up the sloped path as far as I could, passing up the minute hand and stopping only once I reached the four. I reached a hoof up and pushed down on the minute hand in front of me, curious if it could hold my weight or not. I pushed as hard as I could, but the hand didn’t budge. Bouncing on my hind legs a bit, I thought out the small leap and finally crouched down low. I pushed off and landed gingerly on the tip, wobbling a bit and nearly falling off. I regained my balance on the sloped platform, and looked up the long black hands, noticing something glowing at the tip of the other hand. It almost looked like...

“Colgate, did you find somewhere to get out of here?” Twilight called to me assuming I had gotten on the minute hand for a reason. “I’d rather not spend the rest of my shortened life in here, and I’m sure you don’t want to either.”

“I didn’t find a way out,” I replied as she walked over beneath the hand I was now standing on, “but you might want to look at that.” I pointed to the glowing object at the end of the hour hand.

“What is it?” she asked squinting before hopping up next to me. “It looks to me like its glowing purple... You don’t think...”

“I’m not sure...” I trailed off, looking directly into her eyes. We both knew what the object glowing at the end of the hand is, but neither of us wanted to say so in fear that it wasn’t what we thought. We both stared at each other for a full minute before Twilight spoke up.

“We should check that out,” she calmly suggested. “We’re going to be stuck up here for a while, so we may as well see if that thing’s important.”

“It could be a bit,” I suggested, not taking my eyes from hers, the tension strung so tight you could cut it with a pair of scissors, “or a piece of metal.”

“It could be a fallen star,” Twilight added.

“...Or a bomb.”

“Or my horn...”

We both snapped our heads sideways at the glowing object, and stared for a full three seconds. Then as if our minds were connected, we both sprinted up the hand towards the glowing object, pumping our legs as fast as our muscles would allow. As we got closer, the object began shining brighter and brighter. My hooves felt lighter than usual as I seemed to glide across the surface.

The light became so bright that I couldn’t see anything else at this point. It was blinding, but I pressed on, not wanting to let up when I was so close. I felt like I wasn’t even running on solid ground, almost if I had started to fly into the air. The pulsating light sent waves of light right into my retinas. My eyes burned, and I started to tear up, all other senses lost except the light that was blasting into my skull. Finally I hit the floor with a loud bang.

Looking up, I saw Twilight lying in front of me completely unscathed. Every scratch and bloodied patch of skin was now completely healed. There were no scars on her legs and no patches of blood stuck in her fur anywhere. The bruises were gone completely, and her color looked completely natural once again. Her mane was no longer caked in dried blood.

And her horn was back in place.

Comments

[wkblack]

Why can we only like once?!

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Ooo. Nice solid action scene.

I wonder... Won't wreaking the place damage time itself...?

~Skeeter The Lurker