Trapped in a Moment

Pinkie Pie, the party pony of Ponyvile walked around town, tummy full of fizzy bubbles and head full of confusing questions as she passed by pony after pony. She saw Apple Jack pulling a cart of apples. Fluttershy was leading a little family of ducks. Rainbow Dash was flying to Ponyvile. Carrot Top was tending to her carrot patch. All was normal or rather looked normal except the fact that every pony was stalk still. Frozen.

“Well this is more confusing than...something that's more confusing than confusing.” The pink pony decided it was time to investigate this curious occurrence deeper.

Trotting up to a Lyra, who looked like she would be in mid song, stuck in the act of strumming her lyre, Pinkie paused and sat down, thinking hard. She touched Lyra's side. The sensation of something cold and hard met her touch. That didn't make sense. The sun was shining. Pinkie stuck her tongue into the air to feel for a breeze.

“Welth, thath's oddth.” She said to herself, tongue still feeling around for any sort of disturbance. “I'th donth feelth oneth.” Sucking her tongue back into her mouth, she sat back, completely baffled, and for Pinkamena Diane Pie, that was a bad thing.

Then a thought occurred to her. “Now, is the whole town frozen, or just the ponies?” She gave a  burp of bubbly foam. “Uuhhgg, I sure hope just the ponies are frozen, because I need a drink of water.” As she trudged her way back to her home in Sugarcube Corner she muttered, “Last time I drink false hopes and empty promises.”

With every hoof step, Pinkie felt herself getting more and more nervous. She never realized till now, just how much noise there was at any given time in Ponyvile. Birds chirping, buzzing of insects, clopping of hooves, rumble of voices, squeaking of carts, they all gave a different note and melody to the song of life in the little town. Even at night there was noise. But now. Silence. Absolute silence, save for her breathing and steady hoof clops on the hard dirt path.

“This is creepier than the night that I spent at Rarity's house and I woke up with all the mannequins looking at me.” The pink pony whimpered, feeling her hair deflate. The incident she spoke of was one the unfortunate night that the Cutie Mark Crusaders thought to be the Cutie Mark Crusaders Pranksters and circled Pinkie with the faceless, life sized dolls. Rarity made Sweetie Belle and her compadres apologize over and over, but Pinkie now developed automatonophobia, and so, politely, stayed as far away from Rarity's work shop as ponyly possible.

Her trot through Ponyvile felt like a continuous loop of the same minute over and over again, but that was impossible, right? Time must have passed. Pinkie looked up to the blue blue sky to see the sun painted in the same spot where it was when she first started walking. As she started to sigh, hoping this was a dream of some kind, Pinkie felt a chill run up her spin, the kind where you're being watched.

Spinning around, huffing and puffing in fearful anticipation, she spied a pony statue in the center of the square, looking at her. Pinkie felt her phobia creepy up as she watched it. She blinked. The statue was looking up the sky, with a hoof to it's face, like always. The way, she let out a long sigh, it was suppose to be. With a little relief, she turned her back and continued on her way back home, trying to steady her racing heart.

Once at the shop's front door, Pinkie slumped against the wall for a moment, thinking over the events that led up to this point.

A few weeks ago she found out that her friend Lyra Heartstrings had special permission from Princess Celestia, under the supervision of Princess Twilight Sparkle, to visit the human world, to learn more about their counterparts that lived on that side. Even more, Lyra had brought back an object without either ponies knowing. Pinkie had asked Lyra to bring her back something that Twilight had told them about from her first trip through the magical portal that connected the two worlds. A can of a strange energy drink called Red Bull.

Lyra wasn't to thrilled about the idea. Pinkie on caffeine? If there was a recipe for disaster, that was a double batch of it, but with Pinkie's poking, prodding, promising parties, and purposely pouting, Lyra gave in. It was much simpler to acquiesce that which was requested, and even easier to slip it back through the gate, if only because Twilight was too interested in renew acquaintances and study more to pay any attention to the turquoise pony.

And so Lyra gave Pinkie Pie, the most hyper pony, only rivaled by Cheese Sandwich, a very caffeinated drink. Lyra knew she shouldn't have done it, and that this would end up bad, but she couldn't take that pouty face that only the party pony could give.

Pinkie slammed a hoof against the door of the shop, tears welling in her blue eyes. “Why did I do it?” She shouted, her voice breaking down to sobs. “I don't get how it's all connected, but I know it is.” Sniff. “But I'm going to fix this. I'm going to figure this out.”

A shiver ran up her spin for the second time. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw another stone statue. She blinked.

“Did we have a statue there? I know about the one in the town fountain, but, I don't remember one on that corner.”

Pinkie watched it for a few more moments before trying the door. With great relief, it swung in. Breathing in, Pinkie entered the shop, not knowing what to expect. She saw Mrs. Cake in behind the shop, helping a customer who seemed so attached to his bits, his hoof was glued to them as he was forever stuck in mid exchange with the chubby blue mare for a blueberry crumble, but that's not what Pinkie noticed. The shop keeper bell. It didn't ring.

She took another step forward and heard her hoof on the floor. The sound startled her, as the floor here was made of wood, and the paranoia that was brought on by the silent still world caused her to jump and spin around. The statue was at the door, a hoof out, muzzle open, jagged teeth bared. Pinkie let out a scream that no pony would ever hear. Or so she thought.

A hoof grabbed her. “Hurry this way!” His voice said urgently. “And don't look away from it! Don't blink, what ever you do, don't blink! It's faster than belief, but can't move while you're looking at it.” And with that the mysterious stallion pulled something out of the collar of his tie with a flourish and yelled out “Allons-y!” before dragging a panicking Pinkie Pie to the backside of the shop and back to the frozen world.