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// Blizzards and spells gone wrong 
// Story: A Time Apart 
// by gentleheart 
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Twilight Sparkle screamed as she fell through the portal into soft powdery snow. She leaped to her hooves in preparation to once more attempt to stop Starlight Glimmer. she stopped as she noticed that where she had landed. She hadn't landed at junior speedster flight camp like she was meant to, but rather in a cold and frozen landscape. She let out a small shiver as strong wind smacked into her. Twilight let out a small sigh of relief as she saw her brother's kingdom in the distance. She began to move not noticing the something didn't  look right.  That there were many things different about the crystal kingdom. In the growing storm Twilight couldn't see what was wrong in her hopes of finding shelter in the familiar. Fear and worry clouded her thoughts and swarmed around her like angry bees. she wondered what had happened to Spike. Had he been caught in the spell, had he been erased, or had he simply been left behind. What about her friends what had happened to them. All these thoughts and more filled Twilight's head as the snow began to fall and thicken. 

Twilight hastened her pace. As she walked through the beginnings of a blizzard and the frozen wastes. Twilight began to hears the sounds of misery. The soft rattling of chains and heavy hoof beats. Twilight froze a hundred feet from the entrance. She could now see just what was wrong.  She could see the crystal ponies heads low in exhaustion with barely the strength to lift their hooves as the trundled on at a steady pace. Twilight hesitated this was not her brother's kingdom. Twilight steeled herself and prepared for a fight, remembering the first timeline. A pony with a white coat froze as her eyes met Twilight's. She shook her head frantically.  

"No, run." She whispers frantically to Twilight. She then tilts her head in the direction of a garden of statuary. The faces of the ponies frozen in fright making it clear of what happened to those who rebel. Twilight grimaced but shook her head vehemently and then it happened. A pair of guards galloped towards them. Twilight did as the crystal pony had asked and ran. A silent promise in her eyes to free the other pony and those like her. Determination filled her heart as she led the guards of the crystal empire on a chase through the massive city. She manages to lose the guards long enough to hide in one of the once extravagant structures.

Twilight sighs softly as listens to the harsh hoof beats of the guards pass her by from the other side of the door. the building is silent and all of the furniture is covered in the dust. The building has three floors the ground floor bearing the visage of a shop and leading up to an apartment. Below those two floors is a basement cellar. That was once used to store various wines. The family that used to own was well off before they had been taken if the signs of what had been a  struggle were anything to go by. Strewn across the floor of the shop were various bottles in differing states. Twilight used her magic to pick up the shards of broken glass and move them into a nearby bin. Twilight was grateful that there hadn't been a great number of major technological advancements since Sombra's tyranny over the crystal empire other than a few advancements in the kitchen such a refrigerators and coffeemakers. She would have to be careful not to be caught if she ever wanted to make it home. If she could that is.