The Time Sweeper

        I awoke the next morning and checked the timer on my sweeper. Still about two days left. Looks like this ‘event’ is going to happen sometime at night. I stretched and looked out of my window. It seemed to be a decent enough day. Bright and sunny, a few clouds in the sky, and the edge of a forest a little ways off. The only thing separating the gap was a field with the ‘security’ fence. I decided to leave my room to find Dark Spot. I needed to talk to him. But as I walked around the building, he was nowhere to be found. As I continued walking I heard a familiar sound. It was the sound of a butane lighter burning through bars. I smiled.

        “Looks like I have some unwanted visitors.”

        I found the room that they were trying to get into and I hid in the hallway. After a few moments I heard hooves hit the ground. It sounded like there were two ponies in the room.

        “Are you sure this is the right place boss?”

        “Of course I’m sure,” I heard one of them get hit “you idiot.”

        “Okay, okay, you didn’t have to hit me.”

        “Shut your trap, now where’s the layout of the building?”

        I heard a few papers being shuffled around.

        “Right here boss. Here’s the top floor, here’s the ground floor, and here’s the basement.”

        A few moment lighter I heard the lighter again as the door handle started to turn red

"Oh crap I’m not hidden very well.” I whispered to myself. I quickly found a box that seemed to be big enough to fit in. Just as I closed the top the door opened up. I peered out of a hole in the box to see who it was. One was a gray earth pony, the other was a smaller red pegasus. They tried to quietly trot off, but the floor was made of marble, so their hooves clicked with every step. After they were far enough away I flew out of the box and made my way closer to them. There was almost no light inside the hallway, so I didn’t have to worry about a shadow.

    After a few minutes of running around the other two had found what they were looking for. The gray one grabbed the lighter and burnt the lock. Then they both headed downstairs.

        “Ok boss,” the red one spoke up, “it’s the third hallway on your left, then it’s the fifth door on the right.” he smiled. “I can’t believe this has gone off without a hitch yet!”

        “Don’t get your hopes up idiot. Now come on!” he took off down the hall, not caring about being quiet anymore. The red one took off right behind him. When they reached the doorway the gray one pulled what looked to be a small charge out of his bag. Time for an ‘intervention’.

        “And what are you going to do with that?” I almost shouted. It made them both jump and spin around to face me.

        “Where did you come from?” The gray one asked angrily.

        “Oh, I was just getting up when I heard you idiots break in here, so I decided to follow you guys. But now I’m interested as to why you would break in here. So answer me this, what’s behind that door?”

        “What, you don’t know about the weapon?”

        “A weapon? What kind of weapon are we talking about here?”

        “A type of weapon that is none of your business! We’re here to take it and use it for our own purposes!” the gray one shouted. He charged at me wanting to attack me.

        I smiled as I activated my sweeper. “Turn around.” As I said that I disappeared and reappeared behind him. He tried to spin around but he tripped over his own hooves and face planted the ground, hard. He knocked himself unconscious.

        “Well that was easy, and don’t even try it kid.”

        As I said this the red one froze behind me.

        “How did you know?”

        “You just saw what I did right? And you still think I wouldn’t know that the ‘side-kick’ wouldn’t try to do something?” I turned around to face him. He was a bit smaller than me, probably because of his age.

        “Well yeah, but anyway how did you do that? You were in front of him, then you were behind him in a split second! That’s impossible!”

        “Actually it’s more possible than you think.” I showed him my sweeper. “This is what allows me to do the ‘impossible’. I simply paused time, walked around him, and continued time, making it seem I teleported.”

        “You...you paused time? How?” he was completely baffled by this point.

        “I use my sweeper to control time, I don’t just pause it.”

        “Like how do you ‘control’ time?”

        “It’s a long story and I can’t explain it all. But I can show you, like right now I recorded this entire chat with you, so now watch behind you.” I disappeared as he spun around.

        “Where did he go?” he said out loud. Then I walked out of a doorway to his left.

        “I was waiting in here the entire time, I even heard myself talking to you.”

        “But you only talked to me once! I thought a recording was something you had to replay?”

        “It did replay, but I’m the only one who noticed it. You see when I make a recording, all I do is go through an event once while recording, but when I end it, it reverts back to the start of the recording, and creates an image of myself, repeating the exact event. Everyone or anything that was part of the recording still reacts to the image, until I want to ‘reappear’. I can roam freely while the recording is playing, and nopony notices me.”

        It was almost as if I had fried his brain with the way he was looking at me.

        “Ok, no, I’m done here. You are way beyond my comprehension right now.” he started to drag his boss back down the hall.

        “Hold on a sec kid. It may not be my business, but it seems to me that he doesn’t treat you very well.”

        “No he doesn’t but I can’t leave him or else he’ll have me killed.”

        “What? Why would he have you killed?”

        “Long story and I don’t want to explain but he’s basically blackmailing me to work for him. I hate it.”

        “Well I could make you an offer to work with me, it would be better than working with him.”

        “I told you he would have me killed!”

        “I can have Dark take care of that for you, you won’t have to worry about him. So what do you say?”

        “No beatings or harsh name calling?”

        “Never.”

        “Do you promise?”

        I sighed. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. It’s a promise that can never be broken.”

        It was almost insultingly funny how fast he dropped the gray one again and flew back towards me.

        “My name is Mitro hooves. My talent is having my hooves light on fire if I’m running fast enough.”

        “Wow, now that’s a name I haven’t heard before. Nicely met Mitro. My name is Flare Dasher.”

        He smiled brightly. “So what do we do now Flare?”

        I laughed.

        “Honestly Mitro, I have absolutely no idea.”