A Rose by Her Own Name

Roseluck was quite happy with the day so far. She’d sold a lot of flowers and her garden was coming in nicely. The flower plots were well cared for, and there hadn’t been any vermin trying to destroy them yet. The same went with her personal garden at home, where she grew a lot of her food. She’d been concerned about a few molehills nearby, but if they got bad she could contact Fluttershy and she’d move them somewhere else.
Her sisters were doing fine as well. Their gardens weren’t quite as pristine as hers, if she did say so herself, but they were doing well. Daisies and lilies weren’t roses, but they still sold well enough. They didn’t have personal gardens at their places, though, so Rose had that one on them. She was proud of herself for her work growing flowers, and her sisters and herself didn’t really compete on their sales. They even worked together sometimes, but Rose was proud of herself for her own work, and didn’t feel like she needed help that often.
The best part of her day, of course, was when that handsome brown stallion with the green tie came by and bought a full bouquet. He probably had a special somepony already, but she could dream. In the downtime between sales, she had nothing else to occupy herself, so she could dream all she wanted.
She dreamed in between her flower sales, and spent her day thinking about how she might coax her vegetables to grow a bit bigger. She was also trying to grow some roses of other colours, or maybe make a new-colored rose. It was difficult, but she’d read some things that included help on doing something like that, and with her earth pony growing prowess, she might just have the latent magic to do it. It would be a bestseller if she could, she was sure.

She wasn’t a botanist, and she didn’t fully understand everything there was to know about genomes, and alleles, and all of that, but she knew how to make roses grow, and that should be enough.
The day came to an end, and Rose and her sisters packed up their carts, waved goodbye to each other, and went their separate ways. Rose hitched herself to her cart and pulled it back to her house, where she locked it up and went inside her home. She started some supper cooking and slipped out back to check on her vegetable garden. The molehills hadn’t yet spread into her yard, but they were still prevalent in her neighbor’s. She might alert Fluttershy to them ahead of time instead of waiting for the inevitable. If her neighbor wouldn’t do anything about it, she would.
She sprinkled some water over her plants and went back inside for supper. Boiled cabbage, dumplings, and some garlic toast. She ate with gusto, picked up her dish, and went back toward the kitchen. She stubbed her hoof, slipped forward, and the plate fell out of her hoof. She cried out as she saw the plate falling through the air in slow motion. That was one of her favourites!
She cried out, watching helplessly as her face fell slowly toward the wooden floor, and the plate tumbled ahead of her.
And she watched.
Then she realized it hadn’t yet landed. Also she hadn’t yet hit the floor.
She looked around in confusion.
Her rear hoof was still caught on the table leg, which is what had caused the fall in the first place. Her left forehoof was in the air, reaching out for the plate it had lost, and her right forehoof was tucked underneath her out of reflex to catch her when she hit the ground. But she wasn’t moving except for her head.

“What?” Rose said.
As soon as she spoke, she sped up and completed her fall. Her right forehoof caught her and she stumbled forward, bumping into the plate where it hung in midair. The plate shifted, but once she stopped pushing on it, it stopped moving as well. She caught herself and looked at the plate again. It was just hanging there, suspended in the air.
She reached up and grabbed it, and it moved without any resistance. She looked at both sides of it, the dirty top, and the clean bottom, and realized she didn’t know where her fork was. She looked around and found it floating by itself out in the dining room where she had originally dropped the plate. She reached out to grab it.
As her hoof clutched at the fork, the fork dropped out of the air like a stone, clattering on the wooden floor. Her hoof grabbed nothing, and she looked at the fork like it had betrayed her.
“The plate waited, but you couldn’t? How rude,” Roseluck said.
She picked it up off the floor and looked at the two dishes, confused. Neither one felt any different than normal, and they didn’t look out of the ordinary. They were dirty, but that shouldn’t cause them to float.
What on Equestria had happened? She was affected at first as well, but she was able to move with just a little effort, so was something attacking her?
Roseluck put the dishes on the counter and went to the front window. She pushed open the shutters and took a look outside.
Everypony was walking and going about their business as normal. None of them seemed panicked about something strange like that, so was it directed only at her? Had she herself done it?
She went back to the counter and picked up the fork, then tried to make it do it again. She tossed it up in the air, pretended to trip, even threw it across the kitchen, all to no avail. It didn’t happen again.

Rose looked at the fork in confusion, but gave up trying to force the incident and cleaned up the kitchen. She kept glancing out the window to make sure other ponies were moving just fine, and none of the bubbles stopped moving, or the water in the sink, so Rose chalked it up to some wayward magic from Princess Twilight or somepony, or just a bit of confusion on her part.
She read a book until bedtime and went to sleep without thinking too much more about it.
The next morning there still didn’t seem to be any further troubles. She tossed her blanket up into the air to experiment, but it floated down like normal. It had just been a fluke, she surmised, and thought nothing more of it.
Rose had breakfast and went out to her plot of flowers. She went through her daily routine of care; watering, feeding, and taking cuttings of the flowers. She cut the ones that were reaching their peak, and a few that were undersized, but not yet blossoming. She had to cater to those who liked their roses beautiful immediately, and those who wanted them to grow a bit more so they could admire them. The cuttings were to grow new rosebushes, and sell a few small ones to customers who might want to grow their own. Not her best flowers, of course. Those were hers.
She waved to Lily and Daisy across the field, working in their own patches. They had a much easier time of their work than Rose did, as their flowers weren’t covered in painful thorns and harsh brambles. She didn’t resent them for it, but she did sometimes wish she were a unicorn. That would make her work a lot less painful, not to mention much easier. Floating a pair of clippers around instead of using her clumsy hooves or her teeth would be pretty nice.

It was while using the pair of clippers with her hooves that she saw an adorable little bumblebee buzz up to her, it flew to the flower she was going to clip and she waited, letting the little fellow do his work before she cut. He buzzed back out and she tightened the clippers, slicing the flower off its stem. It toppled to the side, slowed down, and stopped.
Rose gasped and dropped the clippers, but they too didn’t move. She looked over at the bumblebee for confirmation. It hadn’t made it very far, and was hovering in midair nearby. Its little wings were still moving, but barely, as if the poor thing was trying to fly through molasses.
Rose stuck her head up above the bushes and looked around. Lily and Daisy were off in the distance, and they were standing still as statues. The clouds in the sky hung motionless, and there was the occasional dot of a Pegasus floating in the air, unmoving. There was silence, and there was no motion save herself. Even the wind had been frozen, and there was nothing to ruffle her mane or tail.
“Hello?” Rose called out.
There was no answer, and she wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but her heart raced. She didn’t know if she wanted a response or not. If something did respond, would it be a pony? At the thought there might be something else, she ducked back down so her head was level with her rosebushes. Her eyes darted back and forth. There was no motion, no sound, nothing. Nothing except for her.
Why her? Why could she move? She wasn’t any more special than anypony else, was she? She slept, ate, drank, parties, and groomed herself like any other pony. She wasn’t even a unicorn or Pegasus. Why could she move while everything was frozen?

Then another thought hit her: How long would this one last? When it happened last night it was only about twenty seconds, this one had almost hit a minute and still hadn’t stopped. She didn’t want to be stuck like this forever! Would she age? Would she be able to eat or grow food? How would she handle not being able to talk to anypony?
Just as these thoughts flew through her panicked mind, things started moving again. The shears fell to the dirt, bumping against her hoof. The rose fell to the ground, and bumblebee buzzed away, ever patient.
Rose stuck up her head and looked around again.
Clouds floated in lazy paths across the sky, pegasi zipped about moving them here and there, and the sound of wildlife, work, and ponies going about their business filled the air. It was only small comfort, however, as Rose had no idea what was causing it, and no idea how to fix it.
Rose collected her basket of flowers, stuffed her tools back in her saddlebag, and trotted over to see Daisy.
“Daisy! Did you… see anything strange just now?” Rose asked.
“Strange? Like what?” Daisy said.
“Like, things… seeming to move in slow motion?” Rose said.
“Noooo, I can’t say anything seemed slower than usual. It is a lazy day, though, I’ll agree with that.” Daisy said.
“Yeah… yeah… it is a lazy day. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Daisy,” Rose said.
Daisy looked at rose with concern. “Is everything all right, Rosey?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. I think I’ve just been in the sun too long. See you in the market later, Daisy,” Rose said.
“Yeah, you too, Rosey,” Daisy said.
Rose left Daisy to her work and plodded home. If Daisy hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary, then she couldn’t very well bring it up. What would she say? “Everything but me froze for a minute there!”. How much sense would that make? She couldn’t prove it. She’d sound crazy.

Rose made her way back home and prepared her cart for work. She was distracted, and made a lot of mistakes. She bumped her head on the awning, banged her shin on the wheels, and tangled the harness as she was putting it on. She kicked the cart in frustration, and winced as all it did was hurt her shin even more. Something weird was going on, and she couldn’t do anything about it. She hated that feeling most of all. She was helpless.
She pulled her cart out of its stall and limped off to market despite her feelings, and set up in her usual spot. Daisy and Lily were already there, smiling and cheery as could be. Rose set up her cart, pulling out the shelves and opening the awning. Her roses were set up in a display that was as ideal as could be and drew the eye directly to her own face. It was supposed to lure in stallions, and it usually worked; when she wasn’t scowling.
Her regular customers stopped by to chat, but only a few of them bought something. Roses were okay for eating, but she hadn’t cut as many of the ones intended for eating as she usually did, due to the strange occurrences of the day, so she sold out of those very soon, leaving her with the ones meant for decoration or gifts. It was the middle of the week so she didn’t expect to sell many of those.
She was watching a stallion flirt with Lily, and he was getting all touchy-feely, reaching across the counter. Rose was prepared to step in when she noticed the stallion was starting to move slower. She sat up straight and looked around. Sure enough, everypony was moving slower.
“No no no no no! Not again!” Rose said.

Everything came to a halt, and Rose was once again the only person, thing, or animal that was able to move.
She darted out from behind her cart and ran up to Daisy.
“Daisy! Daisy please, can you hear me?” Rose waved her hooves in Daisy’s face.
There was no reaction whatsoever.
“Oh no… no no no,” Rose said. “What do I do? Can I do anything?”
Rose pounded a hoof on her head as she tried to think of something that might help…or somepony. Rose lived in Ponyville after all, and Princess Twilight had taken up residence here! If anypony could help her figure things out, it was a princess!
Should she wait for things to go back to normal first?
Rose looked at her cart, and at Lily and Daisy still frozen where they were standing. She looked at the stallion leaning in toward Lily and sighed. If things started back up and she wasn’t here, there was no telling what mischief that stallion might cause. Daisy wasn’t the strongest in personality, and would likely be no help to Lily if the stallion tried to take a few liberties. Rose opted to wait for things to go back to normal before she went running off. If it was anything like this morning, it should only take two minutes at the most.
Rose went back to her cart and waited. She waited for two minutes past the time she had spent fretting, and everything was still frozen. She was starting to get agitated. She was in her original position, and she had waited, ponies should be moving again by now. What was wrong? Was Princess Twilight affected by it too? She was relying on the princess being able to move to get help from her. If she couldn’t talk to her she couldn’t explain it. She was a princess, so she should know why time was stopping, right? Could she break a time stop? Was she even aware of it? There were too many questions, and no answers.

Rose promised herself she’d wait a few more minutes, then she’d leave her cart and go check on the princess to try and get help. If it hadn’t stopped in the next few minutes, she didn’t know when it might, and that wasn’t good.
She was idly tapping her hoof on her counter when she heard something. It started out quiet, then rose in volume, then got quiet again. It was a strange susurration coming from nearby, and it sounded like it was coming closer. She decided it would be best to hunker down behind her cart until whatever it was had passed, and ducked down until only her eyes were above the countertop. She watched, waited, and listened.
The sound became louder just down the street, and something that looked like a pony stumbled into view. It moved with jerky motions, at first galloping, then stopping, then walking a few steps, then trotting. It didn’t go in a straight line either. It moved sideways, then maybe it would take a step or two backward, and then it would dash forward.
Its head was tilting from side to side, and Rose was reminded of a dog looking at somepony, the way a dog might cock its head to the side to look. This wasn’t cute, though. This was… disturbing.
Rose breathed as slowly and quietly as she could, inhaling and exhaling as slowly as she could manage. She didn’t know what this pony was, or what it was doing, but she got a chilling feeling down her spine that it would not be something she wanted to tangle with. She wasn’t a fighter in the first place! She was a lover, through and through!
The pony tottered in her direction, the hissing sound getting louder as it got closer. Rose stayed where she was, ducking down a bit more to hide.

The pony’s head whipped back and forth at different speeds each time, looking around at all the frozen objects and ponies around it. As it jittered forward, Rose got the impression it was looking for somepony. It would shuffle close to a pony, examine them for a moment, then move on to the next. In this manner it was getting closer to Rose and her sister’s carts.
Rose panicked and ducked fully behind her cart. She crawled beneath the undercarriage and looked out at the hooves of nearby ponies. She was breathing hard, and her heart was thudding in her chest. The pony was unsettling to look at and she had a horrible sinking feeling that it wouldn’t treat her with the same disinterest as the other frozen ponies. With them all it did was shun them once it had given them a once-over. What would it do to a pony that could move?
She watched those strange, twitchy hooves as they came to her section of the market. The pony moved first to Daisy, it’s unnatural rhythm pulling it up next to her. Rose’s breath caught as it stuck its blurry muzzle up next to Daisy’s face and sniffed. Its whole body rippled for a moment, then to Rose’s relief it moved away.
Next it shuffled over to Lily and the stallion that was reaching over the counter at her. It moved up behind the counter to Lily and started sniffing at her. It made a strange noise above the hissing whisper and turned to the stallion. It sniffed at the stallion, then at Lily, then to Rose’s horror, it reached out and touched the stallion with a hoof!
The stallion began moving backward, pulling back across the counter away from Lily! The pony kept pushing until he had returned to his spot on the far side of the counter before he had begun groping at Lily.

Rose gasped at the sight, and immediately regretted having made the noise. She covered her mouth with her hooves, but it was too late. The pony’s ears had perked up at the sound, and it was tilting its head from side to side again, turning this way and that as it tried to pinpoint the source. In an otherwise silent world, any sound other than yourself was going to be out of place. Rose herself had heard this thing coming long before she had seen it.
Rose cowered as it left Lily behind and moved toward her cart. She could see its face, with its blurred features and strange, toothy grin. Then she realized; if she could see it, it could see her. She froze and looked straight ahead, avoiding looking at its face. She held her breath and kept her mouth covered, not daring to move a muscle.
The strange pony moved to her cart and stood in front of it. The noise it was making was grating to Rose’s ears with it this close, and she had to consciously work to prevent them from lying back on her head. Her eyes wanted to focus on the legs directly in front of her, but she forced them to relax and focus on nothing at all. She felt her heart speed up as the legs moved from the front of the cart and walk around the side. She could hear the hoofsteps, marching in that stuttering rhythm, moving behind her cart and she wanted to scream. She wanted somepony to come help and get this thing away from her. She wasn’t a hero or a fighter or strong or magical. She was just a flower mare! Why was this happening to her?
Against her better judgement, Rose squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to see anything if the pony behind her decided to attack her. She shut her eyes, and waited.

The susurrating hiss stayed behind her for some time, but much to Rose’s relief, it eventually moved away from her. She kept her eyes shut until she could no longer hear it, then slowly opened them. Things were still frozen around her, but that pony was no longer about, which was a huge relief all on its own. She could handle being frozen, but dealing with monsters like that, that wasn’t something she could take.
Rose crawled slowly out from underneath her cart, and was startled when there was sudden noise from all around her!
She jumped and banged her flank against the underside of her cart, which elicited a laugh from Daisy.
“Rose, what are you doing under there? You can’t sell flowers by hiding,” Daisy said.
Rose felt a little bit of embarrassment, but she pulled herself out from underneath her cart without saying anything in response. She wasn’t really in the mood for banter. Daisy seemed to sense this and came out from behind her cart to help her the rest of the way to her hooves.
“Are you all right, Rose?” Daisy asked.
“I’m… fine,” Rose said. What was she going to say besides that? She still couldn’t explain it to any regular pony. None of them would believe her.
“That’s not the kind of thing a pony who is actually ‘fine’ would say,” Daisy said.
Rose sighed. She was right, but there was still no way to explain it. “You’re right, but I will be all right. I just… think I need to go see a nurse or somepony. It wouldn’t make sense to you.”
“Oh! Are you sick?” Lily had finished with the strange stallion and come to check on her as well.
“No, it’s just weird stuff,” Rose said.
“Well, okay,” Lily said. “Speaking of weird, that stallion paid for his flowers twice, then insisted he hadn’t yet paid. I couldn’t convince him otherwise.”

Rose didn’t know what else to say. They wouldn’t believe her if she told them the truth. Heck, she wouldn’t believe herself if she hadn’t been the one experiencing it. She needed to speak to somepony who knew more about weird magic, and that would be a princess. Who knew more about magic than an alicorn who was Princess Celestia’s star pupil?
“I’m sorry girls, but I think I need to go speak with Princess Twilight about this. It’s not really something any of us have any experience with. I promise I’ll explain once I get answers myself, okay?” Rose said.
“Well, if you’re sure. Do you want us to take your cart home for you?” Daisy offered.
“Yeah, that’d be nice, thank you,” Rose said.
“You’re welcome, Rosey. I hope you feel better soon,” Daisy said.
“I hope I will. Thanks again.” Rose turned and galloped down the street toward the Crystal Castle where she should find Princess Twilight.
She approached the giant crystal doors and hesitated. The princess wouldn’t turn her away would she? This was a strange and unique problem, but Rose had to admit, it sounded a little crazy. She really hoped you couldn’t get arrested for asking weird questions. She didn’t know how princesses worked. She’d seen Princess Twilight around town and even at the local hayburger join. She’d just have to find out.
She rapped on the door and waited.
She waited for a good thirty seconds, unsure if she was interrupting something royal, or if maybe the princess wasn’t in. She must have princess duties, and those might take her away from Ponyville and her castle sometimes.
She lifted her hoof and knocked again, waiting for an answer. It took another thirty seconds, but eventually she heard the padding of little dragon feet and the Princess’s assistant, Spike, opened the door.

“Good afternoon, miss. How can I help you today?” Spike said.
“Hello Spike, uh, I need to talk to the princess about something strange that’s been happening to me. I think it’s magic, but I don’t know,” Rose said.
“Strange magical occurrences? Twilight would love to learn more about it! Right this way,” Spike said.
“Oh, that’s… great,” Rose said.
She wasn’t exactly happy to hear that Princess Twilight would be super interested in the things going on around her, but at least that meant she would be trying to understand it. She wanted it, and that creepy pony, gone from her life forever. It hadn’t been any sort of fun or interesting.
Spike led her to Princess Twilight’s study, where she was currently muzzle-deep in a book, reading about something called ‘luminiferous aether’ if Rose read that right. She turned away from her book as soon as Spike entered with Rose.
“Oh! Hello there! Thank you for bringing her in, Spike. How can I help you today miss… Roseluck, isn’t it?” Twilight said.
“Oh, yes. I’m surprised you know me,” Rose said.
“I’m the princess of friendship, I make it my business to know. Now what seems to be the trouble you’re having today?” Twilight asked.
Rose shifted back and forth on her hooves for a moment. “Well… something weird started happening to me last night. I thought it was harmless at first, but it’s continued happening for longer and longer durations today, and just the last time it happened I saw… something. I think it’s dangerous, and I need help,” Rose said.
“Alright then. I’ll do everything I can. Can you describe the events?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, it’s like everything stops moving. Time stops, or freezes, or I speed up to where everything just seems like it’s stopped. I can’t be sure,” Rose said.

Twilight pulled out some parchment and a quill and started writing, the quill almost a blur on the page. “Time stops, you say? How do you know?”
“Well, I dropped a plate and fork, and they just floated in the air. At first I was affected as well, but it somehow stopped affecting me and just affected everypony and everything else. No wind, no clouds, nopony talking or running, or anything!” Rose spread her hooves wide for emphasis.
“Nopony moved, no wind, nothing. Okay. That could either be a localized freezing spell or a time stop. Usually the user has to have magical talent or item to speed up, so we can probably rule that out,” Twilight said. “And this dangerous thing you encountered, can you describe that?”
Rose felt a chill up her spine when she thought about it, but forced herself to speak. “It was blurry, and moved in fits. At one moment moving slow, then speeding up for several steps, then slowing down to almost slow-motion. I don’t know what it—“ Rose stopped when she noticed Twilight’s quill was no longer moving. “Twilight?”
Twilight didn’t look up, nor did her eyes move at all. She was, to Rose’s horror, frozen.
“Oh Celestia no!” Rose sobbed. “Not again! Not again!”
Rose looked around the room at the books, and other objects. None of them should be moving, so they were no indication of whether it was localized to her immediate area, or if it was everything again. Rose opened the door and looked down the large empty halls.
“Spike? Hello?” Rose called.
There was no answer, but she heard a rapid-fire tapping of hooves on the crystal floors, and in a flash, that blurry pony from before was standing in front of her.
“Ahhh!” Rose slammed the door and pressed her back up against it, hoping the creepy thing might not be strong enough to push the doors open. There was no hiding from it this time, it had heard her yell, and seen her move. It knew.

The door shuddered several times in rapid succession as the pony tried to break in, but Rose managed to hold it. The shaking stopped after several attempts, but Rose could hear the uneven cadence of the pony’s hooves outside the door. It paced back and forth for a short while, then pattered away down the corridor. Rose let out a sigh of relief, but didn’t move away from the door. If it had arrived that quickly, it could return that quickly, and she wasn’t nearly as fast as that it was.
Rose waited a few moments more, but heard nothing. Then, as suddenly as she had frozen, Twilight started writing again.
“Moved in fits, you say? And wha—“ Twilight stopped again mid-sentence.
“Twilight?” Rose felt her hopes rise, and then get dashed as Twilight froze again.
The freeze lasted only a few seconds this time, and then Twilight started speaking once more.
“—t did it seem to… Rose?” Twilight blinked at where Rose had been, then looked over at Rose holding the door in place with fear plain on her face. She gave her a confused look and moved to stand, but froze mid-motion.
Rose heard the rapid-fire tapping of hooves on the floor again, then swift banging on the door she was holding. Tears of fright rolled down her cheeks, but she held the doors closed despite the insistent pounding. The hooves retreated once more, and time started again.
Twilight finished standing up, and Rose shouted at her. “Twilight it’s here! Help!”
“Rose? Is that how you moved over there so quickly?” Twilight asked.
“Yes! Please help! It’s trying to get in!” Rose said.
“Okay, hang on, I ca—“ Twilight was interrupted as time stopped again.
The hooves came back and there was more pounding on the door. It was less insistent this time, more of an exploratory few shoves. There was no noise other than the sound of its hooves on the floor and then against the portal Rose was holding shut.

The hooves retreated and Twilight moved once again. “—n create a shield.”
Twilight’s horn glowed and a purple bubble appeared surrounding the two ponies. Rose looked at the bubble and sighed with relief, but remained wary.
“Will this prevent you from being frozen if time stops?” Rose asked.
“That I’m not sure of, but it will at least protect you from the thing that you say is attacking you, can you explain what’s happening in greater detail?” Twilight asked.
Rose relaxed away from the door and came to sit next to Twilight. “Well, while we were talking, you froze, and I went to look for Spike and to check outside to see if everything was affected again or just you. When I called for Spike, though, the thing showed up just outside the door, so I held it shut, and then time’s been stuttering since then.”
“I’ve been freezing on and off, you mean?” Twilight asked.
Rose nodded. “But here we are, and I think your shield is working. I would have expected time to stop again by now.”
“Hmmm, that could be because what it’s doing is a magical effect,” Twilight said. “I still know nothing about this creature, but with power like that, you would think it would have done something bigger. What does it want?”
“I don’t have the slightest clue. It was wandering around sniffing and staring at ponies. I don’t know for what purpose,” Rose said.
“Curious. But for now we need to focus on making sure you’re safe, because it’s focused on you.” Twilight said.
Roseluck simply nodded, not sure what else to add. She had no clue how to proceed. Twilight, however, was wracking her brain and looked to be deep in thought, one hoof scratching her chin, and her magic quill scratching at the parchment.

“Let’s go find Spike. Maybe I can send this letter to Celestia, then we can do some research in the library until we get a response. She may have some information on what’s happening, or my books may,” Twilight said.
With no other options. Rose nodded, and the two of them opened the doors and stepped out of the room. Twilight’s magic bubble wasn’t very big, but it encased the two of them as they walked. She didn’t let it hesitate for even a second, which Rose was very grateful for. She felt exposed out in the long hallways, and she couldn’t possibly defend herself when that thing could move so much faster than her.
“Spiiike! Where are you?” Twilight called out.
There was no answer, which made Rose worry. Twilight seemed nonchalant about it, though. The two walked in relative silence as they searched the castle for Spike, with Twilight leading the way to what she thought were his favourite places. They eventually found him, gems in claw, with one frozen in mid-air above his waiting mouth.
“Oh no, everything’s frozen again! That means that thing is out there somewhere!” Rose said.
Twilight had a thoughtful expression on her face. She didn’t seem worried at all about the threat of whatever the creature was. She just looked curious.
“That’s so fascinating. And I wouldn’t have even known this creature was out there if you hadn’t come to ask me about it. I wonder how long it’s existed?” Twilight said.
“Twilight please, we need to get rid of it! We can’t live like this forever!” Rose pleaded.
“Oh, of course! You’re right.” Twilight walked up to Spike and covered him with her shield.
The gem above his mouth fell down into it, and Spike chewed with gusto. He opened his eyes and jumped when he saw Twilight standing next to him.

“Gah! Twilight, don’t do that! I could have choked,” Spike said.
“Spike, we have a possible crisis on our hooves! I need you to send this letter—“ Twilight floated her parchment with the notes from her conversation with Rose on it to Spike. “—to Princess Celestia.”
“Okay, but what’s going on?” Spike took the parchment and rolled it up.
“That will have to wait until later Spike. Send it immediately,” Twilight said.
“Wow, okay,” Spike blew flame on the parchment, and it burned up into a small glittering trail of smoke, which flew up and out of the protective bubble surrounding the trio.
The smoke stopped once left the bubble, and hung suspended in the air. The group could only watch in dismay as it hung there, unmoving and unhelpful.
“I really should have seen that coming,” Twilight said. “Whatever is going on, it is happening outside of my protection right now, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“What... what do we do now, Princess?” Rose asked.
“Now…” Twilight scratched her chin with a hoof. “Now we do research. Until I see the thing or figure out what it is we’re up against, I can’t possibly fight it.”
“Oh! I’ll go set up your favourite studying table!” Spike ran off out of the bubble and froze in mid-stride.
Twilight groaned and moved closer to him, putting him back inside the bubble. “Spike, don’t go running off. You have to stay with me okay?”
“Uh, alright? Nothing happened though,” Spike said.
“I’ll explain while we walk,” Twilight said.
The three walked toward the library in Twilight’s new castle. The silence was palpable, pressing down on them from all sides. Not even the singing of birds came through the windows, and certainly no wind. There wasn’t even the movement of the sunbeams through the stained-glass windows to mark the passage of time. Twilight observed this with increased curiosity.

“If the sun isn’t moving, that means that either the effect covers all of Equestria, and possibly further, or the light isn’t reaching us,” Twilight said. “That would mean that all that light and other things are accumulating at the edge of the effect though, which would then hit us all at once, and that would possibly kill us, so I doubt that. It has to be a worldwide effect. How powerful must it be to do that?”
“Princess Twilight?” Rose asked.
“Oh, yes, Roseluck?” Twilight said.
“I realize you’re very curious about it, and you’re trying your best to come up with a plan, but it’s all making me very uncomfortable. Could you possibly, talk quieter? This… this isn’t normal to me, and I’m very scared,” Roseluck said.
“Oh, sure, sorry. I’m used to talking my problems out loud. I’ll try to be more considerate,” Twilight said.
Despite saying that, Twilight continued to talk. Most of it was mumbling, but Rose picked up a lot of it, and it was disheartening to hear how powerful the thing doing this must be. Rose had no chance to take it on herself, and Twilight didn’t seem to have a plan other than to look up information on it. The only thing that made her feel any better was that the pony out there hadn’t killed everypony yet. It could have many times, but it hadn’t, and that, while scary, was a hopeful sign.
The three of them entered the library, and Spike and Rose clustered around Twilight while she perused her books. They had no idea what she was looking for, so they just followed her about.
While she was looking, there came the rapid-fire hoof-tapping that Rose recognized from behind them in the hall. “It’s here!”
Twilight turned to look, and gasped when she saw the strange pony enter the library double-doors behind them. It hissed for a second, then jerked quickly to one side, skittering sideways behind some of the bookshelves.

“That’s the pony that you saw?” Twilight said.
Rose swiveled her ears and looked around, trying to see where it had gone without leaving Twilight’s bubble of protection. “That’s it! I don’t know what it wants, and it doesn’t seem to talk much beyond that awful hissing.”
“Does it look blurry to you as well?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, why?” Rose said.
“Okay, I was curious about that,” Twilight said.
“Do you know what it is?” Rose asked.
“Not a clue,” Twilight said.
“So what do we do?” Rose asked.
“I think for starters we should—“ Twilight was cut off as the hoofsteps came closer and stopped right in front of them.
The blurry pony hefted a piece of parchment into the barrier that Twilight had erected, then smiled an awkward smile. “Row-sluck,” it said.
“It knows my name?” Rose cried.
“Is that my letter to Celestia?” Twilight picked up the parchment and glanced over it. “It is! But the letter was frozen as smoke in the time freeze, how did it get it back?”
“Now is probably a bad time, but I was scared and in a hurry to explain. I saw it touch somepony and… move them… backwards in time? To a point before they had done something. I don’t know if that helps,” Rose said.
“Well, I’m not sure if it helps, but it at least means I know I can’t let it touch me,” Twilight said. “It also explains how it got my letter to Celestia out of the air.”
“What do we do now, Twilight?” Spike said.
“Now I research, I guess, and pray to Celestia that it can’t get affect anypony inside my barrier,” Twilight said. “I think if it could have it would have done it by now, but you never know. Keep an eye on it and let me know what it does. And don’t stray far away from me!”


Rose and Spike did as Twilight bade them and stayed as close to her as they could, pressing up against her flank while she pulled down book after book from the library shelves. The blurry pony outside the barrier wandered in fits around them, sometimes plodding along, and sometimes rushing in a flurry of hoofsteps. But it stayed close and seemed unwilling to move away. It had found something interesting, and it wasn’t going to let them get very far away.
As Twilight moved down the stacks, leaving books in her wake, the pony outside seemed to take great pleasure in touching the books she left and making them travel back up to the shelves. Rose cringed every time it did. The casual show of power had her terrified. A princess might have a chance, but Rose was helpless.
Twilight went through book after book, looking for something, anything to help. “I’m not seeing much of anything. Time stops, time travel, time acceleration. I need something on time beasts. Time beasts time beasts time beasts.”
Twilight tried to use her magic to grab books from shelves outside of her protective bubble, but each time she lifted one off the shelves, the pony outside kept rewinding them and forcing them back onto the shelves. Twilight had to walk over to them, bunting the weird creature out of the way with her barrier. It didn’t seem particularly scared by the barrier, just… inconvenienced by its presence.
Twilight moved back and forth among the stacks like this, until Spike climbed a step stool to look at some, and Twilight bumped him when she stretched up to look. Twilight wasn’t quick enough with her magic to catch him, as distracted as she was, and Rose fumbled her attempt to catch him as well. Spike tumbled to the floor and rolled to the edge of the barrier, where his tail stuck outside of the protective bubble.

Quick as a flash, there was a BRRRT! of hooves on wood and the blurry creature outside was at Spike’s tail, touching it.
Before either of the two mares could register what was happening, Spike was a blur of motion, disappearing in and out of places in the room as he walked backward, the creature at his shoulder the entire way, even passing through the current location of the protective bubble until Spike was nowhere to be seen.
“Oh my goodness, Spike!” Twilight yelled. “What did you do to him?”
The creature was back as quickly as it went away, leaving Spike the only one missing from their little group. It smiled at the two of them, its blurry teeth shining dully in the dim light.
“Ssssssspah-eek. Row-sluck,” the thing said.
“What do you want?” Twilight narrowed her eyes at the thing.
It lifted a hoof and pointed at Rose. “Row-sluck.”
“Why?” Twilight demanded.
It just shrugged, and its head vibrated and twitched to the side. “Row-sluck.”
“That’s not very reassuring,” Twilight said.
Rose clutched Twilight tight and stared with horror.
“I don’t think Spike has been hurt. If it could have or if it wanted to hurt him, it would have done so in front of us. I think it just put him back where we found him when we collected him to help us do research,” Twilight said. “I’d like to go check on him just to be sure.”
“Okay, that’s fine. I’ll come with you,” Rose said. “Not like I have much of a choice.”
Twilight walked with Rose back to the area they found Spike at. He was back there, in the position they had found him the first time, with the gem in the air above his mouth. Twilight tried to walk back up to him to encase him in the bubble, but there was that rapid-fore hooves-on-wood sound and the thing was next to Spike with a hoof outstretched.

“Don’t you dare!” Twilight said.
The thing glared at her and pushed its hoof closer. It didn’t say anything, but the gesture was clearly a threat. Rose didn’t want to see what it might do if the thing kept rewiding Spike. How far back could it go? The thought was very disturbing to think about. If it could regress Spike back to an egg, what else was it capable of, and why was it only doing any of this now?
Twilight didn’t move any closer, but she stared at the thing next to Spike. She lit her horn and fired a beam at it. The beam passed through the barrier and stopped, bunching up in one spot. The thing reached out a hoof, touched the beam, and it all rewound back to being in Twilight’s horn.
Twilight twitched. “That… was an incredibly odd feeling.”
Twilight cast another spell, trying to grab the pony in telekinesis. She only succeeded in grasping air, after which the spell froze in time and the pony sent it back in time into Twilight’s horn again. Twilight twitched, and for a split second her barrier spell flickered.
There was a rapid tapping of hooves and Rose screamed in fright. Twilight recovered and got the barrier spell up as soon as possible. For a split second when she opened her eyes again, there was a blurry hoof right in front of her muzzle, but it was gone just as quickly.
“Twilight! Twilight are you all right? You still exist and I still exist, right?” Rose asked. “You still remember everything I told you?
“Yes… yes I do. Though it was a near thing. Where did the creature go now?” Twilight asked.
“It broke inside the barrier when you dropped it, but you got it back up just before it managed to touch you. I don’t think it’s gone, but I can’t see it,” Rose said. “I think it teleported away before your barrier could do much harm to it. I don’t think it appreciates having its time messed with in the same way it messes with our time.”

Twilight moved toward Spike again now that the thing was gone, but in a flash the creature was back, staring her down. Twilight grimaced and stepped away.
“It seems we’re at an impasse, but I fear the creature has much more time than we do. I will have to sleep eventually, so we’ll need to find an answer before that happens,” Twilight said. “Let’s go back to the library, where I can search for some answers. It seems it’ll leave Spike alone if I stop trying to get him out of the time freeze.”
Rose followed Twilight back to library, not saying much, but watching the thing as they left it behind. It didn’t follow them, much to their confusion, but they continued searching through Twilight’s books for some sort of help to their predicament. Without the weird pony there to stop her, Twilight could float books out of their slots from outside her bubble, and was able to research that much faster. Rose, not knowing what else to do, stayed next to Twilight inside the bubble and just waited. It was all she could really do, seeing as how she had no special abilities to help out, and a distinct lack of knowledge on time and space.
Twilight kept researching, and Rose kept waiting, and time passed for them. Rose was unsure how much time, seeing as how the day did not pass. Nothing moved, not even the sun, so there was no way of marking it. True to her word, Twilight didn’t stop studying, but she was growing more and more frustrated as time went on, unable to find anything about what it was that was happening, and what the creature was that was hounding Rose.
Unfortunately, Twilight’s prediction came true, and she was starting to feel the weight of the many hours she had spent studying beginning to weigh down on her. Her yawns became more frequent, and her eyes were starting to look heavy. Rose, conversely, didn’t feel tired at all, which she found strange.

“It’s probably because like that thing out there that is somehow responsible for the time stop, you’re somehow stepping outside of *yawn* time.” Twilight explained when she asked. “I’m merely holding back the effect, and it’s exhausting. As such, you aren’t affected by the passage of time in the same way. I cannot say for certain, though. I’m still quite firmly in the dark about a lot of this.”
Rose looked out at the empty library with trepidation. Soon enough Twilight would fall asleep, or make a mistake and let the spell down for a brief moment, and Rose would be alone once again. Rose looked at Twilight, working hard to see if there was a way to stop the creature and save Rose from it. It didn’t seem to care about the rest of them. It was leaving them all alone. All save Rose, because she had seen it, and it couldn’t control her the way it controlled everything else.
Rose couldn’t think of a better way around the situation, and resigned herself to wait. Maybe she could kick it really hard in the face. It worked with belligerent stallions, maybe it would work with this thing.
Rose was thinking of possible ways to fight the creature when she noticed the bubble of protection around them was flickering. She looked up at Twilight to see the princess nodding off, her head lolling to the side. Rose jumped up and shook her, trying to get her to wake up.
“Twilight please! Have you found anything that might help us yet?” Rose asked.
Twilight jerked her head up, startled, and in that moment she lost control of the spell. She was only able to mutter a startled “Wha-?” before she was frozen in time like everypony else, leaving Rose all by herself once more.

“Oh no. No no no. What do I do?” Rose looked at the entrance to the library. She didn’t see the pony coming, and if it had known everything that had happened, she was sure she’d hear its hoofsteps long before she saw it. Still, she decided not to take chances and snuck away from Twilight to hide behind the stacks elsewhere.
She tip-hoofed her way to the entrance and peered down both ways. She couldn’t see anypony out there, nor hear them, so she thought it might be safe. She didn’t know where she was going to go, but if Twilight’s library had nothing, maybe the royal Canterlot library had more books on the subject. It wasn’t like she didn’t have scads of time to waste. That was all she had at this point. Time, and the encroaching horror that was hunting her in this wasteland of frozen moments.
She checked in on Spike as she crept out of the castle, and was glad he was still sitting where they had left him. He was untouched, just put back where he had been originally.
Rose made her way to the front door as quickly as she dared, and pushed them open with a creak. She took one last look into the castle, and to her dismay saw Twilight zipping backward through the halls, the pony likely moving her back to where she had been when this whole mess started. Twilight would likely not remember any of their conversation when things started back up again.
Rose shook her head and bit her lip as she held back hopeless tears. She slipped out the doors and galloped for the train station. She might have to hoof it all the way to Canterlot, but there was no better option at this point.

Rose made it to the train station without incident, and walked up to the platform. She looked down the track both ways and saw the Friendship Express a short distance down the track on its way to Canterlot. She trotted after it, clopping along the tracks until she could climb up into the motionless engine. The conductor was idle, just sitting and staring at the controls he was sitting behind.
Rose looked them over and fiddled with them a bit, but none of them made anything happen.
“I’m not sure why I expected them to. Moving them doesn’t do any good if the things they’re attached to don’t move after I’ve done so,” Rose said.
With a sigh, she hopped out of the train, looked at it wistfully, then started down the tracks. She made it a short distance when she heard the skittering sound of hooves on loose gravel. She leapt into the brush on one side of the tracks and looked back at the train.
There, standing next to the engine, was the strange pony who had been following her. Its head was lolling back and forth, and it was making those strange noises again. It hopped into the engine, and she figured it was probably resetting everything she had just messed with. It then climbed on top of the engine and looked around, tilting its head back and forth as it looked up and down the tracks.
Rose stayed stock-still, hoping against hope it wouldn’t notice. It seemed to be able to catch her no matter where she was, like she was some sort of beacon for it. She wasn’t one right now, or it would have known where she was. It probably just got some sort of ‘general area’ of where she was, and not the direct spot.
It decided it had waited long enough and jumped down, hissing and chittering as it made its way away from the station. Rose took that opportunity to gallop down the tracks, heading to Canterlot.

She traveled for a long time, though she wasn’t sure how long, but she was coming up on Canterlot and without riding the train that was a good day’s trip on hoof. She clambered along the rails that were hugging the wall of the mountain and tried not to look down. She really just wanted to be at home, tending her garden or selling her flowers. She didn’t want to be dealing with this.
“You’re a real jerk, you know that? You stupid… time, twitch… thing,” Rose said. “Now I’m bloody well talking to myself because I can’t talk to anypony else.”
She sighed and entered Canterlot station, where the crowd of ponies was much thicker, but still easy to navigate thanks to the fact that they were all stock-still. Rose pushed one of them and watched the pony totter back and forth. She giggled and took off the unicorn’s hat, then placed it on a neighboring pony. She laughed and pulled other hats off and stacked them on top of that hat, until there was a towering pillar of hats on one stallion in the middle of Canterlot Station.
Rose laughed, but it turned into a sigh almost as fast as it came. Despite her mirth she still had a job to do, and nothing would change until she did it. She could live out eternity in the blink of an eye if she didn’t get this fixed.
Rose started making her way to Canterlot Castle, but stopped and ducked when she heard the tell-tale tapping of hooves on cobbles. She watched as the pony zipped through the crowded streets, stopping and starting erratically until it was standing next to her towering pillar of hats. It looked at the hats with clear curiosity, then reached out a hoof and touched the top one, returning it to its owner. After that one was back, it looked at the next one, tilting its head the other direction, then touched that one, putting it back where it started.

It hissed and chirped, and to Rose’s horror, a second one of the creatures appeared. They conversed in what must be their language, twitching and tilting their heads back and forth as they returned all of the hats to their rightful places.
Rose stayed down, watching them work with terror clutching at her heart.
There were more of them! It wasn’t just one! It was a whole community, and they were everywhere! What were they doing? What did they want? How could she stop them?
Rose backed away and bumped into a carriage, making it rock a small amount. The creatures turned toward where she was hiding at the same time, and tilted their heads in unison, then walked jerkily toward her position, spreading away from each other to maximize the amount of land they covered.
Rose jumped up and pushed the crowd apart, breaking for Canterlot Castle. She found her way onto the middle of the street and started galloping as fast as her hooves could carry her. She heard one of the ponies behind her let out a high-pitched screech which was answered from ahead, and more of the creatures started pouring out of the alleyways and buildings up ahead. They poured into the road, blocking her path, until they had her surrounded on all sides.
Rose kicked and bucked at them, but they were too quick and dodged her blows. One of them pushed forward out of the circle and approached her. She swung a hoof at it and hit nothing but air. She heard movement behind her and bucked backward, spinning to look to see if anypony was sneaking up on her. With her eyes off the one in front of her, she had to spin back around to make sure the one near her wasn’t trying to touch her either. She spun in a blind panic, trying to make sure nopony was getting close, snorting and frothing at the mouth as her eyes rolled wildly in her head. Finally, she could protect herself no more and she felt a hoof touch her flank.
Her vision exploded.

Rose awoke with a splitting headache and pulled herself up from the floor. Her plate lay on the floor in front of her, shattered, and her fork was lying next to it, covered in dirt and hair from having bounced off the ground.
She hefted herself to her hooves and went to find the broom and dustpan. She stumbled through her house and grabbed the items to clean up, then returned to the kitchen and swept the pieces up. She disposed of them safely, then flopped down in a chair.
Her head felt like a lead weight, and throbbed with a steady and painful rhythm. She… remembered something strange. A half-formed though, that she had been trapped for some time, and had been harried by creatures that were enigmatic and frightening. She remembered a chase, and hiding, and trying to figure out what was happening.
She had ended up in Canterlot, though. Why did she remember all that? She wasn’t anywhere near Canterlot. She was in her house in Ponyville. That made no sense.
Rose pulled herself up, cleaned up her dishes, and went to bed early. She slept soundly, and in the morning her head was feeling much better. Rose had breakfast and went out to her plot of flowers. She went through her daily routine of care; watering, feeding, and taking cuttings of the flowers. She cut the ones that were reaching their peak, and a few that were undersized, but not yet blossoming. She had to cater to those who liked their roses beautiful immediately, and those who wanted them to grow a bit more so they could admire them. The cuttings were to grow new rosebushes, and sell a few small ones to customers who might want to grow their own. Not her best flowers, of course. Those were hers.

Rose stopped.
She was getting the strongest feeling of déjà vu. She looked around, trying to figure out what was wrong. Something moved out of the corner of her eye. Something dark in colour, blurry, and moving in strangely quick motions. Rose tried to catch it in her vision, but it kept disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.
Lily called to Rose. “Rose, are you alright? You look distracted!”
“Oh…” Rose looked around once more, trying to follow the phantom with her eyes. “I’m… I’m fine. Thank you Lily.”
Rose turned back to her flowers and continued clipping. This was all she wanted in the first place. She should stop worrying and focus on right now instead of the future. It would arrive whenever it chose to.

The End.