The Time Sweeper

        It’s been a few days since my commander reassigned me to the vortex. I was lucky I had been able to get the few extra days to prepare myself and do a bit of research. I found an interesting bit about the vortex while going through the files. Apparently this vortex has a strange function. When a time sweeper is placed into the time stream, some external force cuts out the connections with the factory. We usually monitor the sweepers as they progress in a world, but this vortex somehow does not allow it. The only things we know of are the point of entry and point of exit. The point of entry is looking at a mansion-like house on a hill, and the exit point is an explosion with what seems to be a yellow alicorn standing in the flames. What is also strange about this vortex, it can’t be ‘frozen’. Usually when we come across a vortex that can’t be saved we just ‘freeze it’, or permanently pause the time flow to avoid more damage. This vortex simply ‘rewinds’ itself back to the point of entry, so another sweeper can have a go at it.

It was all so confusing why nopony had figured out what’s wrong with the vortex, and it made my head hurt. But my ‘extra time’ was up and it was my turn to attempt the impossible. I grabbed my sweeper and started to head out.

“Hey Flare!” Luna called from the living room.

“What is it Luna? I have to go!” I called back.

She walked into the room looking at me. It was her usual ‘make-sure-you’re-safe’ look. “Be safe Flare, please?”

I walked back over to her and gave her a hug. “Of course I’ll be safe Luna, don’t worry about me, I’ll be back before you know it.” I smiled at her as I took off out the door towards the factory.

When I got there I went to my commander.

“Are you ready today Flare?” she said sternly.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I sighed.

“Good. There is something I need to tell you though before you go.”

“What do you need commander?”

“When you enter you need to figure out who the yellow alicorn is. That’s your number one job when you enter alright? I only say this because I won’t be able to remind you of it when you’re in the vortex.”

“Understood commander. I’ll do what I can.” I gave a quick salute to her and walked off to the gate. When I entered the room I had my usual monitors sitting at their stations.

“Thunder, Rose, what are you doing here? I know it’s your job but this is a vortex that can’t be monitored!”

“We know that Flare, but we can’t leave you alone for this one.” Rose said as she smiled.

“Ok then, let’s get this over with. Thunder, start it up.”

“You got it boss.” He ran around to a few different stations, pulling switches and pressing buttons.

I stepped up onto the pad. Again it was a metallic circle, but it’s quite a bit bigger. As I stood there waiting for Thunder to finish setting up, I thought this time I would do something ‘fancy’.

“Everything is ready to go Flare. Are you ready?”

I nodded my head and waited for the countdown.

“Opening vortex in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1...”

Right before it opened I jumped up and did a backflip, spinning into a dive. I smiled as I heard Thunder cheering about my stunt as everything went black.

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I landed safely on all hoofs, stabilizing myself so I didn’t fall over. My head hurt for some odd reason.

“Bit too quick of an entry Flare.” I said while rubbing my head. I looked around real quick to get ahold of my surroundings. I was surprised that I couldn’t find the usual hill with the house. I jumped up a few times.

“Gravity is normal, that’s always good. Now let’s see here what else do I need to...” I couldn’t finish my sentence because of a rude but powerful hit to the back of my head. I dropped unconscious. I forgot to turn around when I entered, smart move.

I awoke sometime later in a bed. At first I was startled but I calmed down.

“Ok, why am I here?” I got out of the bed and silently walked over to the door. I opened it to reveal a hallway with more doors. I was about to walk out when another to my left opened up. I stood still to see who or what had opened the door. To my surprise a yellow alicorn bounced out of the room, almost the same way Pinkie bounces around. I sat there for a minute thinking.

“There was something I had to do that dealt with an alicorn, but what was it?” I shrugged and walked into the hallway. He instantly noticed me and bounced over.

“Oh, you’re awake now! That’s good. By the way, who and what are you?” He tilted his head in confusion.

“My name is Flare Dasher, that’s all the information I can tell you right now. And obviously I’m a pegasus.” I flapped my wings.

“That’s cool, I guess that kind of explains why you dropped from the sky. My name is Dark Spot. My parents only named me that because of these.” He lifted a hoof to show he had a black patch on the bottom. “It’s on all four, just so you know.”

“Ok then Dark, where am I?”

“You are in my mini-facility for ‘the weird and unknown’. Everything I find or see that is ‘out-of-place’ or something else, I bring it here! Since you dropped from nowhere you were unknown to me, so I brought you here.”

“That’s a bit weird to think of, but okay I guess. What is the date right now?”

He tilted his head again in confusion.

“The what now?”

“The date!” I repeated myself. “You know like the month, the year, the time!”

His head snapped back straight. “Oh the time! Well I’ve never heard of ‘month’ or ‘year’ but the time is 7972:07:13:1724. Is that helpful?”

This time my head tilted in confusion. “It might be, hang on a second.” I walked over to a window and peered outside. It seemed to be night, so that made understanding Darks ‘time’ a bit more possible. I walked back to him.

“Why did you look outside? Is my gate not activated? It should be!”

“Don’t worry about that right now, I’m going to take a step outside for a minute.” I walked outside to see a golden fence that seemed to surround the entire house. I picked up a rock and chucked it over. As soon as the rock was right above the gate some kind of laser or charged beam shot from the house and obliterated the rock. My eyes widened as I slowly stepped back inside.

“Why did you toss a rock at my gate?” Dark asked as soon as I was back inside.

“I was testing something. What’s the time right now?”

“Uhm, it’s 7972:07:13:1730. Didn’t you just ask about the time?” he seemed puzzled.

“Yes I did but I was just double checking something.” I think I had figured out the way the ‘time’ is told around here.

“Anyway Flare you can’t go anywhere until morning. And can I ask you another question?”

“Sure.”

“Ok. Obviously you know of it but what is that thingamabob on your back? I tried to remove it but I couldn’t no matter what I tried!”

I laughed. “Only the owner and user can remove and control the sweeper. Its designed to the users personality. Since you’re not like me, you can’t remove it. However I can choose who can use it if I want them to. Now I have a question for you.” I looked at the timer on my sweeper.

“What is your question?”

“Is there any major event that is going to happen in about three days? Well technically two-and-a-half now but still, is there any event?”

His eyes got smaller as he focused on me.

“No, no there is nothing that will happen that I know of.”

“You said that kind of in a ‘dark’ tone. Are you hiding something from me?”

He started to get angry. “No Flare there is nothing else. Now return to your room and wait there until we can leave. We will talk more about this tomorrow.”

I turned and went back. There was something strange about him, and I didn’t like it. I shrugged it off and layed down. I needed to get rid of my headache anyway.