//------------------------------// // Chapter two: A Moment of Time // Story: The Future for You // by Manes //------------------------------// Sunset Shimmer moaned from the intense pain she felt burning in her back. She blinked, shut her eyes, and blinked again. How long was she out? Days? Weeks? Months? For all she knew it could have been a year or more, time wasn’t exactly her friend right now. It was the reason why she’s stuck wherever this is. She blinked and opened her eyes to see the sun was gone, the clouds had turned grey and the peaceful noise replaced by the sound she didn’t see coming. The sound of thunder. She welcomed it, enjoying the drops as it washed through the dirt and tweaks in her mane, washing the grime off her body. She even opened her mouth to catch some of the raindrops as a drink, ignoring her muzzle getting wetter and wetter. She didn’t care if the water wasn’t from a sink, she didn't care if it was dirty. She only cared that it wasn’t coming from the ground in a pile of mud.   She coughed and grimaced, feeling the fresh bruises on her body, wincing as the wind blew into her wounds. Her body felt weakened either by the hunger in her stomach or by her lack of energy. All the running and magic exhausted her, and was now an easy meal for any predators that may be stalking around. She wondered if any form of life survived out here other than plants. However she didn’t have time to think about it as the growing hunger reminded her that she had a time limit that was decreasing each passing second. She could already imagine Princess Celestia putting on an act as she addressed her subjects of her student’s apparent death, using false speeches about the “good” times they had. Then, when their backs are turned, Princess Celestia will replace her like a used napkin. A fresh new student to do her bidding while she took all the credit for his or hers work. The realization that Princess Celestia was winning this battle she began jump started her heart as if a bolt lighting restored the energy she had lost. Not this time, Princess Celestia. She wasn’t getting rid of her that easily. She mustered all the strength she had left and lifted herself up, only to fall back down on her face in a matter of seconds. She inhaled and channeled all her strength into her hooves as she lifted herself up, pushing through all the weight in her body. She couldn’t lose. She couldn’t let Princess Celestia win or else all the progress she put into her plan would be for nothing. All because she let herself become weak, become like the ponies that adored the tyrant she called teacher. She wasn’t weak. She was strong, powerful. She bit her lip, drawing out a bit of blood as she heaved herself up on all fours. She screamed as all her weight came crashing down on her forelegs, but she wasn’t going to fall back down and lay in the dirt like an animal. She was the future ruler of Equestria and lying down was a sign of weakness. Shimmer was all power. She sucked in all the fresh air she could and stomped with each step she endured, shivering as the mud smeared all over her hooves. The sound of thunder echoed across the skies, and a squishing could be heard as pairs of hooves stomped their way through the mud. She snuggled as much warmth from her cloak as she could, and kept her head down to avoid the rain as she walked through it. She watched every single drop of water plummet into the ground, being consumed by the dirt. She shivered at the cold touch of the wind looked behind her to see what's left of the city. She couldn’t go back, nothing was there for her, nothing but rubble and dust scattered around her. No more tall white buildings that would be seen from a mile away that almost touched the skies. There was no meaningful change of scenery. Trees, grass, vines... It seemed mother nature had reclaimed what was rightfully hers, but at the cost of replacing everything that was here? Her exit had crumbled along with what was the greatest city in her time. Now it was just an artifact, like her. A memory of what Equestria used to be before whatever it was that turned it into dust. It bothered her to the core. The feeling wouldn’t go away. It stuck to her wherever she went, reminding her it was still there. A memory came back, her ears perked up as Celestia’s voice echoed in the air, or in her mind. “And just like you, he failed to achieve his destiny because he failed to learn humility.” Failed to learn humility. How dare she! Sunset Shimmer didn’t need humility because it would only bring her closer to failure. If she humbled herself to those rats Celestia called subjects, then she wouldn’t have a brilliant mind. She growled as her rage boiled inside her. Her horn glowed and whatever her magic picked up from the ground was tossed across the sky. She wished the thing smashed into a window, hit a pony in the face, hit a stop sign on the pavement, anything to let her know not everything was destroyed. She waited for an echo, or a pony shouting at her for throwing it. The rain responded with another clap of thunder, but at a louder volume that rang in Shimmer’s ears. She shielded her eyes from the fog that clouded her vision. Her muzzle quivered under the cold and her teeth clattered together. Shimmer hooves felt like all the muscles inside were stiff therefore every step brought pain in her entire hoof. She looked around for any sign of life, but she couldn’t see a thing for she was trapped within the fog. No noble ponies dressed in fancy outfits, prancing around with their muzzles raised in the air. No pony to praise her. No princess to hate. She was alone. She had never felt so alone, in the face of an unknown world in which she was nothing to nopony. Her anger, angst and selfishness evaporated instantly as she had dreams and plans for the future. She had so much that needed to be accomplished, and now she never would see it though. Everything looked incidental and unimportant. She couldn’t tell how many hours and miles she had ahead of her. She let the rain trail down her hood, overwhelmed with her own thoughts. She wished the instructions for the spell would float around in her head while her eyes were closed, but she saw only darkness. She tried to put more thought into it, but her memories of were all jumbled up. Starswirl’s entry sounded off as she tried to remember the words, but it was blank. She couldn’t travel back in the past, even if she wanted to; but she could push herself farther into the future where society maybe survived whatever this was. Rebuilt itself from the mess she created, and all the resources she could use to travel back home would be waiting for her. Her eyes widened in realization as the words stuck her like the rain hitting her face. The solution was right in her face the entire time and she didn’t even know it. All she had to do was perform the spell. Sure, the plan had some flaws in it, but it was the only one she had.  She turned back for one final look.. The city her parents grew up in, the city she grew up in, was nothing but a pile of dust and memories, nothing more. She closed her eyes and pictured the great white castles that would be the main attraction when somepony would look up above. Leaving everything she knew behind for something new again felt wrong, as if she was abandoning her home for something imaginary Maybe it was a stupid thought, but she hoped she would cross paths with Celestia one more time. To finally see the mare of harmony, who fought in many wars, tremble in fear because of her. The ‘failure’ she claimed Sunset was. She pulled the hood off,  not minding the rain wetting her mane.   Her horn glowed a golden aura, shining into the darkness that surrounded her. Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and focused. The same thing happened as before, the  wet trail on her nose, her body trembling with pain. Even the scene was moving forward. Days, years, centuries. She re-watched skip forward, but it wasn’t enough. The land still looked abandoned and broken. She needed to keep moving forward and so she did. A headache pounded against her head as she forced more magic into the spell. She was putting her all into this spell. She couldn’t lose. She was Sunset Shimmer. The most talented unicorn in all of Equestria, which she proved numerous times. She knew for a fact she was going to survive this and travel farther into future. She just hoped it had what she needed. She couldn't tell what was changing because she was moving through time at such an incredibly rapid speed. Tears fell from her eyes as she reached her limit, she felt lines of burning pain encircling and crushing her heart. She opened her mouth for a final scream, but a bright light erupted from her mouth and eyes, shining within the darkness before it went out and with no trace of the unicorn. Sunset Shimmer woke, her face touching the ground. Her cheek cold laid against it as the rest of her body felt numb. And the smell. Sunset Shimmer felt like her nose was laying in sewer water.  Shimmer nearly choked on the saliva that had gathered in her throat, and in an instant, her eyes widened to an unnatural degree. She groaned. Her body felt like it just been drained by some magic monster, the spell must have done that, rendering her body useless. All her muscles wouldn’t respond, unable to move with the lack of energy she had left in her. She heard the beep again, but longer this time as if somepony or something was doing it on its own. “Come on, get out of the street!” Her ears pointed straight up as the husky voice shouted into it. Did she just hear another pony’s voice? No, this couldn’t be a hallucination, Shimmer was sure of it. The long beep again, followed by a, “Come on!” Suddenly Shimmer groaned and lifted her head to see a stallion, holding out a hoof to her. She hesitated, but he didn’t like the guards that would arrest her in a flash. This stallion wore a dark blue uniform, shirt buttoned up and a belt wrapped wrapped around his waist and with blue pants under it. What caught Shimmer’s eye was the golden star pinned on the right side of his chest. What did it mean? Without a word, the stallion went ahead and pulled Shimmer up to her fours. “You alright ma’am?” She dusted herself off and nodded. “Why are you asking her that, arrest her!” The stallion barked. He stepped out of the carriage and balanced himself by clinging onto the hood as he shouted, “I didn’t call you to comfort her!” “Please sir, just get back in the vehicle and--” “She’s clearly some bum or drunk that passed out in the street!” While the two barked at each other like dogs, Swimmer's ear twitched as she heard whispers from behind her. Turning around, her eyes widened as she saw a group of ponies looking at her with the same shocked expression. A swarm of ponies looked at her. Every pony she saw had some form of clothing. She saw all kinds of things. Suits, jackets, dresses and big coats shielded them from the cold the rain brought. She looked down to examine her whole clothing. A cloak that had holes within it and some of the fabric was torn from it, dirt smeared around the dark spots. No wonder they stared at her. She could see a light emitting from what looked like books in their hooves. Some held onto their faces and talked into it while others pointed at her before a bright flash blinded her a little. She felt threatened by it and growled at them. That’s not what caught her attention. What really caught her eye were the dozens of massive skyscrapers thrust so far into the heavens that they went even higher than the cloud cover. How the lights managed to shine through the dark rain was something puzzling. If she had to guess, she would say that it was about eighty stories tall before it disappeared into the clouds. She wondered if pegasi had trouble flying all the way to the top of the unknowably tall building. Images flashed on the buildings before fading away. Images like a mare holding a can named “Coke” with a smile on her face. She looked like she was real, as her eyes winked at the world. Other images had marees drinking out of a can or a glass bottle. Shs turned away from them when a loud sound rang in her ears. A metal carriage drove in front of her. The strange moving carriage had glassed windows unlike the carriages without it back in the day. which did not had none. Their wheels spun rapidly while the carriage continued to move at an impressive speed without any stallions pulling it. This carriage was not the only one. There were dozens, hundreds on the road, all their lights brightening the dark places. The carriage came to an abrupt stop when a light turned red. She was startled by the sound from before, only this it was from a carriage behind her. Shimmer tried to teleport away, but only ended up with blood trailing from her nose and a sudden headache pounding her head. She knew she was out of options. She couldn’t teleport away or she would put herself through more pain. The carriages didn’t make this any easier by honking at her. She looked around. Everypony had stopped with they're doing to look at her, all their eyes planted on her and those strange devices pointed at her with flashing lights. The carriage worsened her headache, beeping into her ears. She grabbed her head, the noises crawling through her brain, its strange music blasting in her ears. It confused her. She couldn’t understand any of it. The fact her mind couldn’t wrap around the technology of the future haunted her. She was Princess Celestia’s student for a reason, and now that she felt like the rest of the ponies in the crowd: stupid. She used her hooves to block out the pesky noise that attacked her ears. She looked up and when her eyes hit a billboard that sat above her, she gasped. A mare looked down on Shimmer with a smile on her face, big as the building she was stuck on, waving at the tiny ponies on the ground. But the size wasn’t what Shimmer cared about, it was what was waving at her. It was an alicorn, a pony Shimmer was destined to be. Instead another mare had stole that from her, stole her right as Princess of Equestria. Sunset Shimmer  stopped staring as the officer touched her shoulder. “Ma’am, how about you come with me and I’ll make sure you're safe.” “Where am I?” Shimmer said, looking around in awe. “Ma’m, I need you to stay calm and come with me,” he said, hooking his foreleg over her. “Hey, let go of me!” Shimmer shouted, pulling back. “Ma’am, please don’t--” Shimmer shrugged his foreleg off. She didn’t time  to react as the officer pulled her foreleg and forced it upon her back. “Hey! Ugh! What are you- ow! Doing!” “I tried to be nice, but you had to make me use force.” The gruff voice she heard before said. Let go of me!” She wiggled her hooves, but the stallion’s strength was too much for her. “I demand you--” Shimmer cringed as he tightened his hold. “Just be quiet and I won’t have to hurt you.” She heard weird noises and something cold gripped on one of her hooves. She grunted. “Where are you taking me!” “To jail.” As he was about to placed it on the other, Shimmer’s horn began to glow a bright turquoise  color. The stallion that held her hooves released his hold as he stepped back, his eyes burning from the light that erupted from Shimmer’s horn. A wave shoved the  stallion back as a large turquoise aura bubble surrounded the area. She lifted her head from the hood and saw behind her  the stallion blinded from the light from her spell. She couldn’t escape with a teleportation spell as she was still exhausted from the last cast. An alarm went off in her head when the stallion groaning as he regained his sight. Without a word spoken, Sunset Shimmer grunted as she lifted herself from the hood and threw herself into the stallion’s side. He grunted as her force knocked him back, spittle flying out of his mouth as he fell to the ground, his hoof clutching his side. Her head slammed on the ground after she headbutted the stallion. She groaned as she rolled over, her hooves being crushed by her back. She whipped around at the sound of the stallion, now prone, screaming at her to stop. She rose up and looked around, seeing the ponies in the crowd still watching her, some with shocked faces and some with excited ones. She looked to the alley ahead of her and sprinted towards the it. She ran off into the darkness, the sounds of the crowded area fading off into the distance. The only sounds she had to comfort her were the clopping of her hooves on the pavement and the shackles jangling along. Not even an hour in the new world, and she already was on the opposite side of the law.