//------------------------------// // 1 // Story: A Time and Place // by Cheer //------------------------------// Twilight smiled with determination as the dust started to fade. That was a really strangely violent reaction. Usually it just faded away. She opened her mouth as she prepared her speech. Only for her words to die in her mouth. Sunset... looked like she was in pain. Her clothes were more than a little bit of a wreck and she was cradling her arm. Sunset's head raised and Twilight jumped in surprise. She was completely panicked. As Sunset turned away Twilight noticed something strange. Sunset's left arm was still red and one of her eyes were all wrong. Why? The elements were supposed to fix that! Her red claw grabbed at the ground as she scrambled up and away from them all. She acted feral. She was scared. So she ran. She didn't know where she was running to. She didn't care. She just didn't want to go through that again. Through the pain that the Elements put her through. "Hey! Get back here!" Rainbow shouted as she saw Sunset scramble away. To someone who already disliked her, it seemed like sunset was simply trying to escape retribution. Sunset however wasn't going to be stopped. She ran away, around the hole on all fours and heard Rainbow's shout. She wasn't thinking clearly. She just wanted to stop Rainbow from chasing her.  Time seemed to slow as Rainbow watched as Sunset's left arm grew. It dug into the ground with ease and threw the slab of dirt backwards. It was only her fast reflexes  that saved her as the heavy chunk of dirt slammed into the ground to the side of where she now laid "What the hell!?" Rainbow shouted as Sunset made her escape. Sunset could vaguely hear the sound of Rainbow's worried friends surrounding her as she got further away. She didn’t know where to go. What to do. It was all ruined again. Her head hurt as thoughts and memories of all the cruelty she’d caused constantly flashed through her mind. Under normal circumstances the decision she made would have been the last one on her mind but she wasn’t of right mind. Not now. She screamed as she ran through the portal. It was wrong. All wrong. The portal wasn’t supposed to hurt! But it was. It felt like something inside her was tearing in two different ways.  When she opened her eyes it was still dark. She was on her back outside. She hoped it hadn’t been that long. But then she remembered the portal. She pushed herself into a sitting position but then she realized. She was still here. Her body was still wrong. Her breathing picked up as she looked around, scooting backwards towards the portal. Her confusion only grew though. Everything was covered in snow. There was no hole in the ground. There were no angry students glaring her down. What had happened? She started to rub her hands together  as the cold started to get to her. Her clothes were  in tatters but she noticed at least one part of her was warm. Her left arm. She glanced over to where it’d been laying and to her shock the area where the arm had been was dry. The snow that  should have been there had melted completely. Why was her arm so hot?! Come to think of it, was her breath warmer too? Were her legs? Was she… having a panic attack? She was THE Sunset Shimmer. She didn’t have panic attacks. At least that’s what she told herself. Yet as more and more unanswered questions popped into her head, the worse she felt. She was getting lightheaded, her head was pounding. She had to get away from here. To hide. She shakily stood, holding her head. At least it was warm. As much as she hated to look at it. Her plan was to get back to the library. To get into her hiding spot and sleep. She made her way around the building to a side window. She always made sure to block off the lock so she could get in. “What? No, no, no, no. Why are you locked? Come on!” She grumbled as she pushed against the window before groaning. This happened sometimes but come on. She didn’t want to have to go to her backup. But the window wasn’t budging. “Damn It.” She grumbled before walking away. The walk was surprisingly calm. No one was out at this time of day in this temperature. It was about a half hour walk and by the time she arrived, she felt horrible. Even with the warmth of her red arm, it was still cold. How was there snow all over the place? The time of the day seemed right but… nothing else did. She sighed as she turned the corner. At least she’d be out of the cold soon. “What?” Her eyes were wide as she staggered forward. “It… It can’t be… Come on now, this isn’t funny.” The universe didn’t answer her however as she fell to her knees in front of the empty lot. Her backup. The cold, but free from wind building that she’d come to know was gone. Not just gone. But it’d been gone for some time. The “lot for sale” sign had already faded. So much had happened tonight. All her plans were up in the air. Her body was mutated, it had somehow snowed and everywhere she used for shelter was gone. Her mind was overwhelmed. Everything was spinning, blurring. Was something whining? She could hear a high pitched noise. She barely registered as her body fell forward before everything went dark.