The Time Sweeper

by TheRainBrony

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Crossover
Length: 5922

I work at the Time factory to help keep worlds under control. This is my story of an unusual realm I had to deal with.

While working at the Time Factory we have to "save" different realms or "vortexes" from collapsing in on themselves from a major time disaster. One of these worlds has had many ponies attempt to save it, now it's my turn to see what I can do.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-04-04 16:09:43 UTC

A new assignment

My name is Flare Dasher. I’m a regular pony with a good life, an awesome fillyfriend, and a good job. Why am I telling you this? It’s because of what my job is. I keep the flow of time under control in many different worlds. I am a time sweeper. I always have my vacuum-like device, called a “sweeper,” on hoof so I’m never caught off guard. I have lived many lives, and I have died many times as well. This is a story of one of my more interesting travels.

It was a quiet morning, the weather was calm and there was a cool breeze coming in through the window. I awoke slowly for I didn’t want to get up. I checked my calendar; the date was July tenth, 4732. Just a few months before my birthday. Too bad I couldn’t stay longer here, I had already overstayed my welcome

“Good Morning commander, how’s everything back at the factory?”

“Everything’s fine here, Flare. Why haven’t you returned yet? Your job there is done, is it not?” she replied.

“Yes my job here is done, I just didn’t want to come back just yet. How’s Luna, by the way? Has she sent any messages for me yet?”

She rolled her eyes as she moved the camera to reveal a small pile of letters written to me. “Honestly, Flare, she worries too much about you.”

I laughed at her remark. “Yeah, I know she does. I’ll be back to the factory soon. Over and out.” I hung up before she could reply.

“After I get something to eat that is.”

I grabbed my sweeper from the wall and headed out. As usual, my “home” was temporary, so it disappeared as I left. It was like a small “pop-up” home I carried on me, only to use if i had no place to stay.

I yawned as I approached my usual spot to eat, “The Corner Crib Cafe.” Yeah, I know it sounds a bit weird, but the food was good here.

After I had eaten, I removed my sweeper and admired it. I’ve had it since training and I have made so many memories with it. It was made out of a custom mix of steel. The combination was called sleet-37, one of the most durable and stylish materials that can be used to make a sweeper. It was shaped like a small circle, so it had its usual ‘spin’ decal on the front that was covered by glass. I had made my own mini decal on the back side.

I smiled as I put my sweeper back on my back and took off. I had to find a secluded area so nopony would freak out when they saw me return to the factory. When I finally found a location to land my phone went off again. I answered to see Lunas worried face.

“Luna, why are you at the factory?” I gasped.

“Waiting for you, obviously! Your commander told me that you were returning, so I decided to come here and wait for you. Why do you always take so long to return from a job?”

“Oh, come on Luna, it’s not that bad.”

“To me it is! What if you got stuck in the Time Freeze?”

“Don’t say that, Luna! You know as well as I do that will never happen, ever. If I were to somehow fail my job, I’m still ranked as one of the highest sweepers, so the factory knows they cannot afford to lose me. There’s no need to worry about me.”

She shook her head and sighed as she hung up.

“Really, Luna?” I said out loud.

I put down the small silver return pad. I never really looked at it but it looks like a metal spiral just big enough to stand on. I activated my sweeper and opened the portal.

A few moments later I stood next to Luna, and my commander giving me the paperwork for my next assignment. My eyes widened as I read what vortex I was headed to.

“Commander, I can’t go here, there’s no way I’ll be able to save it! Nopony has ever been able to save this one!”

She walked away and left me standing there.

I still didn’t like it. Nopony liked this one, not even the thought of it. Vortex number 772, more commonly known as “The Final Stand.” I had to save it.

“Woohoo.”

Hi there

        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.

                              ⚫                          ⚫                             ⚫

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.

A new partner

        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.”

The old pony holds secrets

        A few hours later Mitro and I were walking around town. I found Dark and he ‘took care’ of the gray pony for us. I don’t even want to know what he did with him. But I did make sure that he didn’t kill him, I hated having unnecessary deaths.

        “So Mitro, what exactly is going on around here? And is there any kind of ‘event’ that might happen in about two days?”

        He stopped and thought for a moment. “Not anything that I can think of is going to happen in two days, but we’re in the middle of a war right now. I don’t know the exact details of it but I’m sure somepony else does.”

        “That’s a bit strange. Now I’m not supposed to ask this but I can’t think of anything else right now. Do you know of anything called ‘The final stand’?”

        His eyes widened and he looked around quickly.

        “Don’t say that too loudly Flare. Not many ponies know about that, and we’re not supposed to. Things have been getting more intense lately, and security has gone higher than usual.”

        I nodded and looked around. There was a soldier walking around that seemed to be off duty right now. He was another pegasus like me. I walked over to him.

        “Excuse me sir but may I ask you a few questions?”

        He rolled his eyes and looked at me. “What do you need kid?”

        “Are you authorized to give information regarding the statement ‘The Final Stand’?

        He pulled out his gun and aimed at me. “Why do you ask kid? Who are you?”

        I pushed his gun to the side. “Oh don’t be like that, you’re the same as me right now. A pony trapped in a war zone, so don’t point your primitive gun at me. I need to know more about what’s going on, and if anything is supposed to happen in two days.”

        He lowered his gun and pointed at a building down the street.

        “If you ask the right questions the pony who owns that shop can help you. Just ask him about ‘it’ and he’ll talk more. Now get out of my sight.”

        “Appreciated. Thank you.” I walked towards the building with Mitro right behind me. “You can ask what you want too, but warn me before you speak up okay?”

        “No problem Flare.”

        As we walked in I could sense the bloodthirsty eyes of hidden gunmen focus on me. I walked up to the front counter with Mitro cowering right behind me. I placed a hoof on him and brought him to my side, reassuring him that we would be fine. I tapped the bell on the counter and an old pony with an eyepatch with a nasty scar walked out from the back room.

        “What are you doing here son?” he asked in a weary voice.

        “I heard that you were the one to talk to about ‘The Final Stand’. What can you tell me?”

        His eyes widened slightly as he looked around. Then he opened up the counters gate and walked back into the back room. We followed him.

        “Why are you asking about that? Only a few ponies dare to ask about it. Who are you?”

        “I am what you would call a ‘traveller’ and I help ponies out in a bad situation. “

        Mitro decided to speak up, “He can also control ti-” I placed a hoof over his mouth, silencing him.

        “Not right now Mitro, that’s too much information about me. Now wise one, answer my question.”

        Mitro removed my hoof from his mouth as the old one started to speak and pull out a map.

        “Right here is us.” he pointed to a small circle in the middle of the map, the only part of it that wasn’t covered with red. “We are ‘The Final Stand’. The only reason we are still alive is because of Dark and his weapon. But nopony is supposed to know about it.”

        “What is the weapon?”

        “I can’t say for sure what it is, but I do know that it’s the only thing holding back the griffons. The only thing he says about it is ‘the time is only right when the darkness falls.’ Even I don’t understand it.”

        “So let me wrap this up in a ball here. You’re saying that a half-insane alicorn is in charge of a weapon and won’t tell anypony about it? Oh this does not look good.”

        “That’s about it. But now that I have answered your question, you answer mine. Who are you and where did you come from?”

        “I am Flare Dasher, and I come from a, sort of ‘between’ place. I was sent here to stop a disaster that is supposed to happen in about two days. Well more like a day and a half now but still. When I’m done I leave and the world continues on it’s own. As Mitro tried to say earlier, I control time. I use my sweeper to help me out no matter what the situation is.”

        He was baffled. “But that’s impossible! Nopony can do that! Not even with super advanced technology!”

        “Well my tech has unusual abilities so it’s a bit more possible for me. Anyway I have to go, there’s a certain pony I need to have a little chat with. Come on Mitro.” I started to walk out when Mitro started to speak.

        “Now hold on just one second there. I want to ask a question too.”

        I stopped and looked at him. “Sure go ahead.”

        “Thank you. Now!” he turned towards the veteran. “How do you know of the weapon if he supposedly doesn’t tell anypony?”

        This caught the old pony off guard. Props to Mitro for thinking of it.

        “Well you see, I, uhm, knew of it because, uhm, well...” he was struggling to find an answer, “I asked him! Yes that’s it, I asked him about why he had so many gadgets and what he was going to do with them. Yes, that’s what I did.”

Mitro stared at him as if he were an idiot.

   “That’s a pathetic excuse for a lie, don’t you think Flare?”

        “Yes Mitro it does, nice thinking by the way.” I walked back to him. “So do you mind telling us the real reason?”

        He pulled a gun out of a hidden compartment and aimed it at me. “The truth is classified, so just accept what I said and leave here.”

        “Oh please you’re so stupid.” I activated my sweeper and everything around me froze in place. I walked around to him and removed the gun. Then to have a bit of fun I placed him facing a corner and walked back to Mitro. I deactivated my sweeper and everything resumed.

        “How did I get over here?” the old pony shouted as he spun around and faced us again.

        “Simple, I paused time, moved you over there, then resumed time. It’s not that hard.”

        “Please don’t do that again.”

        “I won’t as long as you tell me why you know about the weapon.”

        “Fine,” he sighed “the only reason I know of it is because I helped to create it. I don’t know exactly what it is because I was fired before I could figure it out.”

        “If you were building it, how could you not figure out what it was?”

        “The blueprints and explanations were all too vague or complex to piece together. An internal combustion engine, a reactor core, a few pieces of scrap metal that needed to bent in certain ways, it was too much to piece together.”

        “That’s all you know about the weapon?”

        “I swear to you that’s all I know of, but I can tell you that this weapon, whatever it is, is very powerful, and is capable of killing thousands.”

        “That’s why I’m here, to stop that weapon from going off.”

        “Do we have enough information now Flare?” Mitro asked.

        “Yes Mitro, I do believe we do.” I checked the timer on my sweeper. “But we’re running out of time, and I need to talk to Dark to see what he’s hiding.”

        “Good idea Flare, let’s go.”

        I nodded and thanked the old pony for his help, and I walked back outside with Mitro at my side. A storm was raging so it was a downpour. I looked towards the mansion on the hill, straight down the street. I needed to talk to Dark. My time was running out. I looked down at the ground and back up again, sighing.

“I need a drink.”

Time is ticking

        “So Flare, what do you plan on asking Dark about?” Mitro said eagerly.

        “Honestly Mitro I have no clue but I’m thinking about it. Based on what the old one said Dark doesn’t like to talk about it unless ‘the time is right’ whatever that means. Based on my own timer I think his ‘time is right’ is when my timer hits zero. I have to figure out his plan before that happens but I don’t have much longer.” I stopped for a moment, to try and regain my thoughts again. I failed. I was getting bugged out about it because I knew it was something important. I stood there thinking for a while. It was a good thing Mitro was with me, or I probably wouldn’t snap back to reality.

        “Flare? Flare are you there?” Mitro was shouting at me waving a hoof in front of my face.

        “Yeah, yeah I’m here, I just kind of phased out for a moment there.” I said as I snapped back to reality.

        “Yeah I kind of noticed that. Anyway the security system is activated. We can’t get in without being blasted!” he said worriedly.

        “Did you forget?” I angled my back so he could see my sweeper. “I control time, so getting past an ‘activated’ system is no problem.”

        He looked at me, thought for a second, then his ears perked up in excitement.

        “So all you have to do is pause time, get inside the house, and deactivate the system long enough for me to get inside, right?”

        “Why would I go through the trouble of doing that? I can control more than one timeline, so both of us can go by without having a problem.” I took off my sweeper and reset it for two timelines. “There, I’ve reset it so you’ll have no problem.” I activated the sweeper and starting walking towards the gate. Mitro was still standing in his spot, looking around for something.

        “If everything around me is paused, then why doesn’t it seem like it?”

        “I’’ll prove that we’re paused.” I picked up a rock from the ground and let it go in mid-air, the rock stayed in position.

        “What in the world?” Mitro said as he approached the rock. “But how?”

        “I would explain but we’ve wasted enough time as it is now come on.” I flew over the gate and continued towards the house. Mitro followed closely behind me.

        “Wait, so, how did you figure out how to do all this?” Mitro said as we landed.

        “How to control time?”

        “Well duh.”

        “Well when somepony wants to become a sweeper, they have to visit the factory. When they get there, a few challenges will be issued. If they pass them, they can continue training. In my case, I passed the challenges easily and continued on towards the more advanced challenges. After I passed those I did more training on my own. It was stupendous at how fast I was learning and getting better at it. But the only sad part for me, no cutie mark yet.”

        “Wait so sweeping is like your super special talent, but you don’t have your cutie mark yet? Sorry dude. But anyway what do sweepers do when they complete the challenges?”

        “They can be assigned a job after that, and that’s when their talent is really shown. For me, I have never failed. I’m one of the highest ranked and most respected sweepers for my efficiency. Now come on we have to find Dark.”

        We walked inside and I deactivated the sweeper. Surprisingly enough Dark was walking around the hallways looking for something.

        “Oh hello there. I thought I activated the system already.” His head tilted sideways as he wore a wicked smile.

        “It was activated, I just found a way around it. Now answer me something, where and what is this ‘weapon’ of yours?”

        Before I could move Dark was upon me, holding a knife to my throat and using his magic to keep me from activating my sweeper. Mitro had dived to the side to avoid being caught too and he stayed away.

        “The time is not right yet Flare.” his eyes were rolling around as if he had no control over them. “But it will be soon, oh so very soon. Oh and what’s this? I sense no fear from you Flare. Yet I’m in charge of your life right now! How are you not scared?”

        I spit at him. “You’re pathetic if you think a little knife can scare me.”

        He wiped the spit away. “Fine then, be that way. But there is something about you that’s, ‘different’, yes very ‘different.’ So different that it’s almost as if I can do this!” As he finished he pulled the knife across my neck, slicing it open as I fell to the ground. It hurt, a lot. After I fell I could see Dark running off down the hall and everything went black.

        “Flare! Flare are you okay?” I heard Mitro shouting at me as I came to.

        “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” I said as I stood up.

        “But he just killed you! How is that possible?” he said worriedly.

        “Sweeper auto reset. It’s always active in case of sudden death. When a time sweeper ‘dies’ his or her sweeper rewinds the timeline to the last point of living status, even if they were still injured. It was a good thing he only tried to slit my throat.” I placed a hoof on my neck to make sure it was completely healed. “Good, now come on we have to find Dark! We only have a few hours left!” I took off down the hall where I saw Dark go.

        “How do you know where to go Flare?” Mitro said as he tried to keep up with me.

        “The basement is the only place where you can work on something in private, and I bet you a million bits he’s hiding that weapon down there.”

        My time was almost up. It was all or nothing. I didn’t plan to lose.