Decay
When I look around I see the streets of ponyville in a state of Decay. I see ponies who are living in decayed buildings. I see decay everywhere, and then I stop and think. What if? What if the world isn't decayed? What if it's all in my head? What if I could see through this shadow on my mind and look past the decay? What would I see? Would what I see be any better than what I see now?
I stand in the middle of the street and I think. Do I want to see the real world if I could? Is anything I see real? Am I even sure I am real? What if I see what I feel? Why am I thinking of this? Everypony else just continues on decaying, but I do not. I stand, appearing to be suspended in time. Everything flows around me. I can see the sounds. I can see the movement. I can see the decay. I can see the path of time. I can see what is going to happen. I know what has already happened. The knowledge of time has been bestowed upon me.
The path of time flows around me, and it speaks. It calls out to me, and it tells me that I can not win. I can not beat the decay. This knowledge crushes me. The decay is consuming this world, and I am powerless to do anything against it.
A sudden thought enters my head. What if time is decaying? What if time wants me to believe I can't beat the decay because it is decaying? I stop and shout to the flow of time. I tell it that it is wrong. I can win. I can fight the decay. I can become free from my mind. I begin moving again, and run to start the fight.
I realize I have no way to fight. I have no knowledge of what to fight the decay with. I get an idea. What if decay is caused by my mind? I run to an open area, and sit. I begin meditating. I imagine what the world should look like if it wasn't decayed. I imagine lush fields of grass, beautiful buildings and breathtaking scenery. Suddenly, the spot on the ground below me doesn't look like it is decayed. It is just how I had imagined. As if I had changed the path of time. I realize I now have a weapon. A weapon to fight the decay. That weapon? My mind.
I meditate on the same spot every day. It grows bigger and bigger, eventually covering the whole clearing. If I keep this pace, I could clean ponyville in over a week. I suddenly think. If I can change one area of time, what is to say I can't change all of time? I go and I sit. I meditate on time. I imagine the fibers of time flowing around me, and I reach out and inspect them. I see what is happening in these strings, and what is going to happen. I search for a string where the world is not decayed. I find a suitable string and I connect it to the string of our reality. I glimpse back into the world and see it is no longer decayed. I open my eyes and admire the landscape. The feeling that I did something great surrounds me. I suddenly feel stopped. The leaves rustle, the branches sway, and animals hop around, but I am unable to move. I see the path of time again. It thanks me for restoring order, and grants me control of time. I can move again, and I am restored to myself. I feel great. I don't feel like there is a veil on my vision. I am free. I have won.
Time is a complicated thing. Hard to understand and even harder to control. It is a large void of many realities. Each reality is subject to change. Each reality has its own time, which, like everything else, can be manipulated. Points in one time string can be "spliced" into another. The flow of time can be manipulated as well. If a time string is stretched, time goes slower, and if it is compressed, time goes faster. Nothing is constant. Everything can and will be changed.
The decay is gone now, and I must go too, for if I keep changing things here, who knows what might happen? Just remember, when it feels like time is coming to an end, reality itself is falling apart, fear not, for the ponies shall save us, and you will see the world that is hidden behind the Decay.
