A Strange Day Out

StasisChapter 1: The cold shoulder.By: The Maniacal Muffin

With a loud wheeze in my breath I round another corner, delighting in the fact that I am not met with more ponies to chase me.

The momentary bliss is just that though, momentary, as I hear the group of mares - and some stallions - coming up to the corner just behind me. I turn around and prepare a batch of my own magic to blast into the crowd, making sure to give it a large area of effect but a shorter lifetime.

As the horde of townsponies round the corner I let go of my magic, sending a small orb rocketing into the center of the mass. When it makes contact a wave of turquoise energy ripples out as everypony caught in the blast turns slightly bluer. Movement with the group jolts to a sudden halt, and using my now small time to breathe and recount I head into the closest building: Sugarcube Corner.

Haphazardly entering the building I close the door behind me, flick the lock and lean my back against it. Wheezing and coughing a bit whilst the first spell is still in effect.

Looking back up from the hoof I was coughing into I find none other than Pinkie Pie hovering over me in a position that soon makes me blush with embarrassment.

Oblivious to the situation she has caused Pinkie decided to press her muzzle against mine with an unbelievable amount of innocence given the situation she is oblivious to.

"Hi Stacy!" she practically yells into my mouth which had found itself agape with the realization of how oblivious this pony can be.

"Hello Pinky, and please stop calling me that." I say back as my cheeks continue to resemble tomatoes more and more.

"No promises!~" She returns in a sing-song voice as she finally moves off of me.

Letting out a sigh with equal parts thankfulness and annoyance I get back onto my hooves and clear my thoughts a bit.

Pinkie noticing the silence decides to start a conversation.

"Stacy, what's happened? It looks like you've been running around all morning." Pinkie asks in a serious tone, something that would alarm anypony else.

I let out an annoyed sigh before I answer "I have been, I don't even know where to start Pinkie."

"Then start at the beginning then!" she states in her usual cheery tone as she motions for us to move to a table to sit.

"Okay then." I say as a sly grin makes it's way onto my face.

"A long time ago, in a far away place, a mare and a colt-" I say before I am interrupted by the thunderous roar of the crowd outside suddenly springing back to life and the early stages of Pinkie's laughter.

In a moment of panic I press my hoof against Pinkie's muzzle and cast a bubble of my own magic around us before I release the now a shade bluer Pinkie.

As we get seated at one of the tables she asks "I guess it has something to do with them?" in a calm voice as she wipes her muzzle.

"Sorry about that" I say sheepishly before answering "Who? My parents or the horde of ponies who have been chasing me for the last hour?" I ask with a bit more sarcasm then I meant, causing me to wince slightly.

Pinkie giggles before answering "Them silly!", pointing to the door.

"This is going to take a while." I warn before I gather my thoughts.

"I think we have time." She says in a faux questioning tone as she points points to my cutie mark of a stop-watch covered in snow and ice.

We both chuckle as I begin to recount my very eventful day.

Walking up to the rose stand, I examine the flowers on display. They look especially nice and are making me feel a bit bad that I am here for a snack rather than decorations.

Looking over the display I am met with the plot of the store owner facing away from me, so as not to show me anything she doesn't want me to see. Apparently this was a foresight as I spot a grey pegasus on the other side of the storeowner gawking at the sight before us, noticing me he gives me a knowing grin. I give him a cold stare in return before I flash my horn and envelop the peeping tom in my magic, freezing his knowing smile just as it faltered.

Clearing my throat, the store owner breaks her attention from what she was doing and stands up to greet me.

"Hi there!" She says to me as I look back down to her produce. "Welcome to 'Roseluck's Essential Flowers', how may I help you?" She says in a cheery and welcoming tone.

"Hello." I begin meekly "Can I get two of those please?" I say pointing to a group of lush looking, light pink flowers.

"Is this a gift or a snack?" she asks in a skeptical tone as her eyebrow rises. "Because that flower there is called 'love's accomplice'."

"Heh, yeah, it's a snack..." I say meekly as I do my best to hide from the mare's accusing glare. "I don't have anypony special I'd give them to anyway." I add looking at the ground for a moment, before looking back up to the store owner, attempting to not look sorry for myself and failing horribly.

"Oh, okay then. I was worried they where gifts for two different mares. Also, I thought you where with Pi-" She said in a slightly less energetic tone than her greeting, that is until she in interrupted by a cyan unicorn pulling up beside me, shoving a hoof in the store owner's mouth and attempting to look as seductive as possible, but only half succeeding.

"Why hello there, I couldn't help but overhear th-" Is all she could say before my startled and accidental casting took effect. The whites of her eyes, mane and tail turning a pale blue; her face being left in a less than flattering expression.

Wide eyed I give a surprised look to the store owner, she returns the expression until it moves to one with more anger in her eyes.

"W-What'd you do!" she asks in a quivering voice.

Letting out the breath I didn't know I was holding, I answer. "When she scared me I accidentally froze her in my magic, she will be fine in a minute and for her it will be like nothing happened. She will technically be a few minutes younger also."

"Oh thank Celestia" she cheers as she lets out her own sigh of relief. "I don't want to beat up any of my customers because my friend became a statue." She adds while giving me an accusing glare.

"Nor do I plan to be beaten up." I say quietly as I take a step back from the stand.

"Glad that's made clear." she says as she stops glaring at me and begins to wrap my flowers.

Finding the courage to stand up straight again, I wait only a moment before my flowers are held out in the store owner's outstretched hoof. Grabbing the flowers in my outstretched hoof, the store owner gives me another quizzical glare, her eyebrow raised high.

"Is something the matter?" I ask with a hint of venom in my voice as I tuck the flowers stem-first under my foreleg.

"Sorry, you are literally the first unicorn I've seen not use telekinesis at every opportunity." she says in an apologetic tone.

I sigh before I explain "I guess you could say I have trouble with anything that isn't time altering magic.", a hint of hostility still in my voice.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have been so quick to judge" she says meekly as she begins to study the ground.

"It's fine, really. It just happens often and it gets to me sometimes." I say in my calmest voice possible.

"Okay, thanks. Um, that'll be three bits." she says as she straightens her stature.

I chuckle and hand over the bits before waving goodbye and turning around, before turning back around having just remembered something, or rather somepony.

"Excuse me." I announce, getting the store owner's attention. "When I found you here you where busy with something and was..." I cough into my hoof before continuing. "Uhh, 'waving around'." I say, getting to the point, and noticing a blush in reply from the store owner. "I didn't see anything but that stallion over there was not even hiding that he was looking." I say, pointing to the grey pegasus from earlier. "I'd say he has two or three minutes before time starts again for him." I say as a smirk makes it's way onto my face.

"Thank you." she says through her teeth in a low voice as she looks in the direction of the stallion in question.

As I turn and start leaving towards the park I hear the store owner curse under her breath and begin to walk away from her her stand with heavy heated steps.

"-at you... where did - OH CELESTIA! ROSELUCK! WHAT? WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING THAT STATUES STALLIONHOOD!?" I hear the cyan unicorn cry as I round a corner.

You still feel things when frozen, they just seem to happen all at once.

"So, so far you accidentally froze Colgate, managed to make Roseluck uncomfortable and caught Thunderlane peeping?" Pinkie says, interrupting my story.

"Colgate... I'll need to be more careful around her." I mutter to myself as a scowl makes its way onto my face while I study the table between me and Pinkie.

"Yeah, the usual for me 'aye?" I ask jokingly, smiling back at Pinkie and finally remembering to answer her.

"Yeah." She agrees as she giggles at my self-depreciating joke. "Are you hungry?" she asks as she calms down a bit. "We are in Sugarcube Corner."

"Yeah." I agree. "I have more then exhausted myself today." I add, giving my reason since one seemed appropriate.

"I wonder how that happened?" she replies jokingly, sarcasm dripping from the statement as we begin to move to the counter where all the goodies are displayed

"Now Pinkies doing it." I think, scowling to myself at the sarcasm of the mare in front of me as I take a seat at the counter and put on a happy facade. I continue my story as a chocolate chip muffin is handed to me, turning my smile genuine.

Entering the park I began to walk over to an empty bench, watching the foals play about in their time away from school. Parents off to the side, watching their foals; others unsupervised, the parents faith in the town yet to be dis-proven. Ponyville really is a fantastic town.

Making my way to the bench I take the flowers out from under my arm and lie down on the bench, sacrificing how I must look for comfort.

I lay the wrapped flowers in front of me on the bench, unwrap them and begin eating my snack; taking particular effort to not let them touch the bench.

Once my food was finished, I crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it into the nearby bin. I then sit up looking around the park, noticing how the mares seem to look away when I turn towards them. I check and begin to double check myself until a prismatic blur lands beside me.

"H-Hey there Stasis, your'e looking fine today" Rainbow Dash practically vomits at me while she visibly tries to keep her composure, leaning against the bench and standing on her hind legs.

"H-Hi Rainbow... Uh, thanks?" I reply, confused by the sudden compliment. Especially since I am pretty sure I look no different than yesterday.

"Oh it's nothing, that's what friends are for!" she says in a slightly wavering tone as she moves to look for dirt under her hoof. This action causing her to lose balance and begin to fall away from me.

Moving quickly I put an arm around her to halt her fall "Woah there." I say as I struggle to keep my own footing, her forelegs holding around my neck and her wings not moving once to help even though they where already outstretched.

"Are you feeling okay?" I ask her as I try to pry her off of me and set her down, she seems to be holding on for dear life.

"I am now..." She says as she looks down into my eyes, forcing me to look everywhere but her face and the ridiculousness of the situation now entering my mind as Rainbow continues to hold herself under me.

"Glad to hear." I say in rushed syllables as I improve my efforts to pry the pegasus off of me tenfold.

I finally pull free and practically leap over the still incapacitated pegasus, trying not to make the situation any worse for me.

She moans in a way that attracts even more attention to the two of us before shaking her head furiously and muttering something under her breath.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I ask, sounding mostly concerned but also a bit frightened.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me." She says as she shakes her head again.

"That makes two of us" I say sarcastically, causing me to flinch at my abruptness.

"Yeah... You just look so~ enchanting..." She says as she looks back to me with a look of longing in her eyes, my primal hormones screaming for justice at the sight of the upturned pegasus.

"I wouldn't be surprised" I mutter in reply, blushing as I begin to put the situation together,

"Say, I just remembered I had to go see Twilight-" I say as I subconsciously lean forward to get a better look at the pegasus before me. That is until I am interrupted by Rainbow suddenly jumping to her hooves, making me jump back and realize my actions, and the hypocrisy of my reaction to the stallion earlier.

"I could take you there!" Rainbow yells into my face as she takes a step forward. "You could ride me..." She adds in a sultry tone, me noticing the lack of mention for flying in her second statement.

"T-That won't be necessary." I stammer as I make some room between me and the suggestive pegasus.

"Actually, now that you mention it, I don't feel too well. My back hurts from that fall." She says in a low, 'pained' voice, me predicting what she is a bout to ask, using the fifteen centimeter fall as a reason.

"Do you think you could carry me with you?" she adds, as she proceeds to lie on the ground and make a fake groan of pain, making me genuinely feel bad for dropping her even though I know she is fine.

Sighing in annoyance I weigh my options against the uninjured speed demon, agreeing to her terms coming on top with help from primal urges, closely followed by freezing her and running away.

"Sorry about that..." I say, making Rainbow physically deflate as she misinterprets my answer, making my mind up for me. "Get on then." I add as I sigh in annoyance. She immediately jumps up and is hovering over me before she remembers her 'injury' and makes another fake groan of pain. Everypony who has ever faked for a day off is now turning in their graves.

As she settles onto my back she wraps her forelegs around my neck and nuzzles my neck, causing me to roll my eyes as I begin to have less and less doubts that something magical is to blame. My blush lowering in intensity but remaining as the affection is still welcomed, from one of the most desired mares in Ponyville no less.

As I begin to make my way to Princess Twilight's home-tree-palace, Rainbow decides to wrap her wings around my barrel. The action causing my walk to become stiff legged and my blush increasing in intensity as I battle my hormones.

In a home-tree-palace not too far away, a purple drake jumps straight in his seat and then begins to give a thousand-yard-stare at nothing in particular, sitting his comic book on the table in front of him

"There is a disturbance in the force." he mutters to himself in a deep and gravelly voice, causing the lavender mare sharing the table to give him a quizzical look before she shrugs and returns to the tome at her hooves; the purple drake holds his stare, slowly picking up his comic book, before he continues reading it like nothing happened.