Time Flows at a Snail's Pace

by JesterOfDestiny

Chapter 3

Whatever happens, I must not let it cross over into our physical realm. As long as it’s still fixated on me, we’re relatively safe, but I must stop expecting others to do my job. I’m well aware that my mind is falling apart, but I should not let that get in my way. This is beyond social norms; I must cease the pleasantries if I want to find a way to destroy it.

---

I was back in the clinic, the cycle of events starting all over again. All my memories were lost and that intense feeling of déjà vu, was stronger than ever. I collected myself and finished up the operation. Once the patient was gone, I used my time to gather my thoughts. The first thing I noticed was a scroll lying on my table. Somehow it was the only thing that didn’t feel out of place, almost as if part of me was expecting to see it. There was a very complicated spell written on it, but something was written on its back as well.

“Moondancer’s book!” That’s what was written there, with a rushed horn-writing that was clearly not mine, complete with a signature I couldn’t recognize. I asked her about it once we met up at Donut Joe’s, but she had no I idea what I was talking about.

“What book?” She stared at me blankly.

“Oh, I was hoping you’d know... Because I don’t.”

She seemed even more confused than before.

I sighed and took out the scroll. “I found this scroll in my office and it has ‘Moondancer’s book’ written on its back.”

They all looked at each-other, hoping that one of them had an answer to what was going on.

“Well, I did find an interesting book called ‘Creatures from Beyond’...” Said Moondancer.

“Wait, what do you mean you found that scroll in your office?” Lemon chimed in. “Did somepony leave it there?”

“That’s the thing,” I said, “I don’t know... It’s all so strange... I had like a spontaneous amnesia. It felt like I just woke up from a dream, almost like my usual déjà vu episodes. But this time I forgot everything that happened today and I was having déjà vu about what I forgot about. I don’t even remember waking up this morning.”

Lemon insisted that I take a break and take another look at my condition, while Lyra and Moondancer looked at the issue with a hint of curiosity. Twinkleshine was the one to take us back on track.

“Wait, what’s the scroll about anyway?” She interjected.

“It looks like some sort of spell.” I said.

“Oh, but what a spell!” Moondancer exclaimed as she took the scroll. “This is some super advanced stuff. Something that I’d try to learn to impress the lecturers at Celestia’s school.”

“It looks like some kind of time spell to me.” Twinkleshine added.

“Yeah, I can see that.” Moondancer replied. “But it doesn’t specify the time or location or anything.”

“Wait, you’re telling me this is a base spell?” Lemon prodded.

“And why is it signed by Doctor Hooves?” Lyra threw a curveball into the conversation. They turned the scroll to look at the signature only Lyra could recognize.

“I was going to ask about that too.” I said. “I have no idea who that is.”

“E-excuse me!” A voice from outside our group called out to us. It was a stallion, sitting at a table next to ours. “This Doctor Hooves might be me, but I don’t believe we have ever met before.”

The confusion grew to a point, where it started to turn into an odd sense of fear. Especially for me; we never met before, but he looked so familiar to me.

“So let me get this straight,” Lemon got really disconcerted, “you forget everything about your day in the middle of it and for whatever reason you have an advanced time spell on your table, which has a note about one of Moondancer’s books, signed by a pony you don’t even know?”

I had no idea what to say; I understood just as much of the situation as Lemon did.

“I think I may have an idea what’s going on.” The stallion called Hooves approached us.

“I really hope you do,” Lemon groaned, “because I’m starting to lose my mind over here.”

He read through the scroll. He nodded, as he recognized the spell. “This is indeed a time spell.” He stated. “To be more specific, one that reverses the flow of time. Nothing is specified, so it defaults to about half a day.”

“Oh, so Minuette is a time-traveller!” Lyra exclaimed.

“Wait,” I pressed further, “is that why my memory’s gone?”

“Could be.” He replied dryly. “This spell needs to be used in conjunction with other spells; it doesn’t just reverse time, it resets everything to the previous state, including memories. I say it’s very possible you used it, but without protecting your memories.” He then turned the scroll around, to confirm that it was indeed his own hoof-writing. “What did you say what book have you read today?” He asked Moondancer.

“Creatures from Beyond.” She answered.

Hooves thought for a moment. “May, we take a look at this book?” He asked. “I have a theory, but I don’t want to say anything just yet.”

We followed Moondancer back to her house. It was clear that she couldn’t wait to talk about the creatures she read about in the book, because she couldn’t stop raving about it on the way. Hooves tried to stay focused, but the proposed origin of the Ursa Major took him on an adventure of the mind. He couldn’t help but be sucked into the black hole that is Moondancer’s brain. Soon afterwards Lyra and Twinkleshine joined in, while Lemon just kept rolling her eyes at the absurd stories. She looked at me for reassurance, but I kept my mind open to all of it, in case any of it explains what’s going on. I was just so eager to find out, that my mind sucked up all information thrown its way.

Hooves got his focus back once we arrived at Moondancer’s house. Moondancer flipped the book open with excitement, ready to gush about all the creatures inside it. But this time, Hooves just told her to keep going after hearing the names. Then suddenly, he slammed one hoof down on a page.

“This one!” He exclaimed.

“Mogalon?” Moondancer read the creature’s name out loud.

“Keep reading.” Hooves ordered, in a tone much different to his usually chipper attitude.

Moondancer read the creature’s description out loud. According to the book, the Mogalon was a creature created by Grogar, from an assorted collection of carnivorous sea snails, for the purpose of hunting down a class of grand wizards known as chronomancers. These wizards would eventually banish the Mogalon into the void between planes of existence, but then they disappeared shortly afterwards. There were none of them left by the end of that century.

“What’s the big deal?” Lyra interjected as she crunched down on her salty treats. “It’s a snail, just dump a bunch of salt on it and get done with it!”

Lemon tapped her hoof on the floor. “How in the hay is any of this related to Minuette’s condition?”

Hooves turned a solemn face to her. His eyes then darted onto the bookshelves and began browsing. “Do you per chance, have a book about the wizard orders of the past?”

“Of course I do!” Moondancer happily took off another book from the shelf that was organized in a way only she could make sense of. “Forgotten Orders”, was the title of the book. She began flipping through it. “I know, I heard the term chronomancer before. A-ha!” She pointed at a paragraph in the ‘hypothetical’ section.

There were many wizard orders whose existence haven’t been proven yet, but have been mentioned in literature. Tales and legends that recall their exploits. Many of them converged into one order later on and their existence only remained in name, while some of them were so ancient that they barely left anything behind. Then there were the chronomancers, who were mentioned only in specific writings and only up to a certain century. But everything about them is totally gone without a trace. Even their supposed central site of pilgrimage is just an empty field, with not even a ruin left behind.

Lemon was really losing her patience at this point. “So I ask again: How is any of this relevant?”

“Oh, it is very relevant.” Hooves talked in a grim tone. “In fact, it is the answer to both her condition and the memory loss.”

“I gotta side with Lemon here.” Moondancer commented. “While all of this is fascinating, it also seems like kind of a non-sequitur.”

“Aren’t you curious about where the chronomancers went?” Hooves asked.

“They meddled with time.” Lemon stated. “They probably accidentally prevented themselves from being born or something.”

“I say,” Hooves asserted, “they are very much still around. And the Mogalon is still hunting them.”

Lemon got visibly frustrated with how cryptic Hooves was acting. “Again, how is this relevant?”

Hooves then turned to me. “You’ve been experiencing episodes of intense déjà vu all your life, correct?”

“Y-yes...” I replied, not knowing where he was going.

“To the point that, as a foal, you thought you were a time-traveller, right?”

“R-right...” I got a bit worried about how specific he was getting.

“And you also started experiencing spontaneous memory loss as well.”

“Today was the first time for me, yes.”

“Right...” He paused. “Have you noticed we’ve got the same cutie-mark?” He turned sideways and showed his flank to me.

I haven’t noticed, up to that point, but he was right. We did have the same exact yellow hourglass cutie-mark.

“Oh right,” Lyra chimed in, “we even talked about that back in Ponyville.”

“Exactly and something must be behind it!” Hooves kept going, his calm demeanour softly eroding away. “Both of us have the same condition, on top of having the same exact cutie-mark!”

“Isn’t it like, a miniature seizure or something?” Lemon said in a somewhat condescending tone.

“Then explain the shared cutie-mark!”

“Pff, I don’t know. I’m sure there are plenty of explanations beyond old dumb mythologies.”

“There’s just simply no way that it’s a coincidence! There is a reason behind both of us having the same cutie-mark and the same condition.”

“Well, here’s the thing,” Lemon tapped her hoof in frustration, “Minuette is not freaking crazy! If this is how she might end up, then we need to find a solution instead of reading about cosmic snails and time-wizards!”

“We are the chronomancers!” Hooves shouted. “They didn’t disappear! They fled into the future, where they could be born again, outside of the Mogalon’s grasp!”

His ravings were followed by silence, a mix of awe and bewilderment sitting in everypony’s eyes, with a hint of fear. Even Lemon, who was so assertive a moment ago, didn’t know how to respond to that.

Lyra was the one to step in. “Alright Hoovesy,” she tried comforting him, “sit down and breathe. Collect your thoughts and think about something pleasant.”

Moondancer took down one of her old notebooks from psychology class.

“I’m sorry.” Hooves talked with sweat pouring from his face. “This chronic déjà vu has been eating at my mind for so long... Months pass and I remember nothing about them. I don’t even know what’s real anymore.”

Looking at him I felt pity, but I also felt fear. His mental state was clearly unstable and I was afraid that I would turn out this way too “Is this how I’ll end up as well?” I whimpered.

“Don’t worry, Minu.” Lemon turned to me, now with a calm demeanour. “You take a day off, go to a doctor and we’ll figure out something.”

“The doctor won’t know anything.” Hooves grumbled. “They’ll tell her the same story about seizures.”

“Yeah, which is more believable than your theory about unborn time wizards.”

“Actually,” Moondancer chimed in, “that may not be that far-fetched. His behaviour is showing symptoms of meddling with otherworldly magic.”

“Yes, the kind of magic we’re told not to mess with,” Lemon asserted, “because our brains will turn into mush.”

“I think it’s worth looking into.” Lyra said. “At least for the heck of it.”

“But all of this is so ridiculous!” Lemon insisted. “Even the stories by themselves are ridiculous.”

Lyra got argumentative. “In a world of hybrid animals and magic coming out your forehead, can anything truly be ridiculous?”

“Yes!” Lemon declared loudly. “Not everything is real! I met a scraggly old hobo the other day, who was really adamant that I was a pile of raisins walking on stilts. Are you going to give his insanity a chance too?”

“I would...” I interjected meekly. “If my condition could get this serious, I don’t want to take my chances.”

I could tell that Lemon saw my point, as her frustrated expression eased up. “Fine,” she sighed, “how about this? I cast veritatem revelandam and see if there’s anything weird going on around you.”

“Seems logical.” Said Moondancer. “If Hooves and Minuette truly have the same destiny, then they should look the same way through the spell.

“Or, reveal that Hooves is a changeling!” Lyra prodded.

“That too...” Moondancer pondered.

“Doesn’t that spell take you exactly where the Mogalon lives?” Twinkleshine asked.

“It does.” Hooves muttered. “We have tried that before, it’s dangerous.”

“This thing eats chronomancers, right? Well I am not a chronomancer.” Lemon reassured.

“No, it’s going to use you as a portal and emerge through you!”

Lemon ran a hoof across her face, while groaning. “Fine! You two stand in front of me and I’ll cast it for just a second. There’s no way anything will cross over in just a second, right?”

Hooves said nothing, but we could tell he refused to agree to it.

“Look Hooves,” I stepped up to him, “I’m scared too. But there’s no other way of confirming this part of your theory. Lemon is a capable unicorn, she knows how to cast a spell safely.”

Lemon nodded.

“Oh... A-alright...” Hooves agreed apprehensively. “But only for one second.”

“Yes, yes, just one second, I promise.” Lemon said. She walked to the middle of the room. Hooves and I positioned ourselves right in front of her. She closed her eyes and cast the spell. With her horn now glowing, she kept looking at us.

“Wow, you guys look so weird!” She exclaimed.

“You can tell us later, now open your eyes.” Hooves hurried her.

But she ignored him. “You both look like... Like... Like a hole in space and time.”

“Good, so my theory is confirmed.” Hooves talked quickly. “Now open your eyes!”

“What is going on with that scroll?” Lemon asked, pointing at the time spell I brought. “It’s all wobbly and keeps fading in and out.”

“Because it’s been used before.” Hooves explained. “It doesn’t belong in this timeframe.”

“Oh no,” Twinkleshine fretted, “that confirms the existence of the Mogalon.”

“Yes, Lemon, you should get the heck out of there!” Lyra added.

“Exactly!” Hooves raised his voice. “It’s been way longer than a second!”

“Alright guys, calm your ticks,” Lemon cut them off, “I am not seeing any snails around here.” She walked around, as if she was actually looking for something, but it was more of a cocky saunter to rub it in.

“Nothing?” Hooves inquired.

“Not a single cosmic mollusc around here.”

“But... But...” Hooves stuttered. “It must be there.”

“I wonder whose eyes those are.” Lemon pointed at the ceiling.

“No!” Hooves screamed and lunged at Lemon Hearts.

Lemon groaned in pain and we all rushed to see if she was hurt. Hooves got off her and Lemon was laying there motionless. She kept moaning in pain. We approached her apprehensively, but then she got off the ground and screamed as a big mass of amorphous flesh emerged from her horn and quickly covered her entire head.

Twinkleshine scrambled and grabbed Lyra’s salty treats and threw it onto the creature. As the salt made contact with its slimy skin, it crumpled up like a piece of paper and slid off Lemon’s face. She quickly got up and ran to the other end of the room.

“Is that the thing?!” She shouted. “Is that the Mogalon?!”

“It might be.” Moondancer answered.

We watched as the snail monster writhed on the ground, like an abandoned paper bag rustling in the wind, shedding pieces of dried slime everywhere.

“It’s really not as threatening as I imagined.” Twinkleshine was downright disappointed to see a living being so pathetic.

“I can’t believe that actually worked.” Lyra added.

We continued watching as it squirmed in place, trying to fold itself back together. Lyra wanted to approach it, so she could take a closer look, but Hooves held her back. His face showed an odd mix of emotions, as if he couldn’t decide whether he should be afraid or relieved or perhaps feel pity for the twisting chunk of crumpled meat.

Is this the creature that pushed him to the ends of his sanity? Is this what I’ve been trying to avoid by reversing time? It looked so pathetic. I was sure that there was more to it, but our eyes were telling us, that we were finally safe from it.

We were too quick to judge the situation. The Mogalon suddenly started vibrating, its body became glassy and its visage reflected off the air around it. The amorphous reflections of it then converged into the creature and it began to rapidly expand in size. The disgusting slurping sound its rapid healing made, like a vow of revenge. Before we knew it, it was sliding across the floor like a malicious shadow. It made a wide spiral across the bookshelf, leaving behind a trail of its own expanding body and with the speed of a striking snake, it pounced onto Twinkleshine’s back leg. In a mere moment it covered almost the entirety of her behind.

Moondancer couldn’t stand to see her friend in danger. She lighted up her horn and fired a beam of energy into the beast. It let go of Twinkleshine, only to form its entire body into a single blob and crawl across Moondancer’s laserbeam, like a carnivorous vine colony, growing faster than the brain can comprehend. And when it reached her horn, its body formed a thick drape across Moondancer’s entire being and engulfed her into a slimy ball.

I tried to step in with my own energy beam, but Lemon held me back, knowing that the same would happen to me too. We couldn’t help but watch as Moondancer’s shape swiftly turned amorphous and liquid-like, accompanied by her muffled screaming. And then it all stopped, with only the monster’s slimy body remaining, the eyes on its shell darting around as if it was pondering which one of us was next.

Hooves jumped in-between it and us. “Run!” He shouted. “I’ll save some time for you!”

“But it’s going to eat you too!” I shouted back.

“Doesn’t matter; you have the spell to reverse this. Just take the information with you.”

I tried objecting, but the Mogalon was already towering above Hooves, like an enormous mouth preparing to swallow him as well. Lemon gave me a shove and we all ran. But the creature was blocking the entrance, so we ran deeper into the house to find a different way out.

We finally found the right window to flee out of. Twinkleshine flung it open, but the Mogalon’s eyestalks were already staring back at her from the outside. They coiled around her and quickly pulled her out. Lemon tried to pull her back in, only to get the eyestalks all over her as well. In a matter of seconds, both of them disappeared without a trace, into the monster’s swirling flesh.

The walls began to crumble. Lyra and I soon found ourselves, completely surrounded by the creature, as its slime grinded up the house’s walls. Lyra cast a shield around us, but it wasn’t going to stop our demise.

“Minuette!” She screamed. “You have to go back!”

“This is all my fault!” I broke down. “I should have never agreed to this! I should have never even mentioned any of this!”

“No! You can go back and stop it!”

“I’m only going to restart the cycle!”

“Do what the doctor said! Write down all that you learned today and it’ll come back with you.”

“But there’s no way to stop it!”

The shield began to crack and the Mogalon’s elastic flesh seeped into the cracks, widening them. Lyra grabbed my face and as she stared into my eyes, she screamed: “Insides don’t grow back! Now go!” She then pushed me away, as the shield finally shattered, letting the Mogalon in.

In a sudden surge of emotions, I teleported out into the street, finally escaping the monster’s grasp. I looked back at what used to be Moondancer’s house and only saw this enormous fleshy pile of glassy slime, undulating around as it swallowed the last one of my friends.

Ponies around were watching in terror, completely oblivious to what went down inside. Luckily for them, the creature was there for me, not them. And as its shell emerged from the other side of its body, blotting out the sun’s light, the shifting eyestalks all fixated on me.

Despair turned into rage. I never felt so much hate for anything, than the noxious gaze I was staring back into. It came for me, but still senselessly devoured all my friends and then it had the arrogance to taunt me with its thousand bubbling eyeballs, goading me to reverse time and come face to face with it again. There was no escape from its malice.

It was clear in my mind what I needed to do. I wanted to kill it...